Waymo Expands Testing to Philadelphia and New York City, Eyeing Northeast Expansion

Waymo to begin testing in Philadelphia with safety drivers behind the wheel

A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar electric vehicle sits parked at an EVgo charging station in Los Angeles, California, on May 15, 2024. Waymo said it will begin testing in Philadelphia, with a limited fleet of vehicles and human safety drivers behind the wheel. "This city is a National Treasure," Waymo wrote in a post on X on Monday. "It's a city of love, where eagles fly with a gritty spirit and cheese that spreads and cheese that steaks. Our road trip continues to Philly next." The Alphabet-owned company confirmed to CNBC that it will be testing in Pennsylvania's largest city through the fall, adding that the initial fleet of cars will be manually driven through the more complex parts of Philadelphia, including downtown and on freeways. "Folks will see our vehicles driving at all hours throughout various neighborhoods, from North Central to Eastwick, and from University City to as far east as the Delaware River," a Waymo spokesperson said. With its so-called road trips, Waymo seeks to collect mapping data and evaluate how its autonomous technology, Waymo Driver, performs in new environments, handling traffic patterns and local infrastructure. Road trips are often used a way for the company to gauge whether it can potentially offer a paid ride share service in a particular location. The expanded testing, which will go through the fall, comes as Waymo aims for a broader rollout. Last month, the company announced plans to drive vehicles manually in New York for testing, marking the first step toward potentially cracking the largest U.S. city. Waymo applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation to operate autonomously with a trained specialist behind the wheel in Manhattan. State law currently doesn't allow for such driverless operations. Waymo One provides more than 250,000 paid trips each week across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas, and is preparing to bring fully autonomous rides to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C., in 2026. Alphabet has been under pressure to monetize artificial intelligence products as it bolsters spending on infrastructure. Alphabet's "Other Bets" segment, which includes Waymo, brought in revenue of $1.65 billion in 2024, up from $1.53 billion in 2023. However, the segment lost $4.44 billion last year, compared to a loss of $4.09 billion the previous year.

Waymo maps Philly and NYC as it eyes Northeast expansion

Waymo is hitting the road again, this time heading up to the Northeast. The Alphabet-owned self-driving car company kicked off two new "road trips" on Monday to Philadelphia and New York City, hinting at its growing interest in bringing robotaxis to some of the country's busiest cities. This doesn't necessarily mean you'll be hailing a Waymo ride in Philly or NYC anytime soon, though. It's really just the first step. Earlier this year, Waymo took similar trips to places like Houston, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Diego, and San Antonio. The company generally sends out a few human-driven vehicles loaded up with its autonomous tech to map out new streets and collect data. Later, it tests those cars in self-driving mode -- still with someone behind the wheel -- before engineers take all that info back to tweak the AI. Sometimes, these trips do lead to actual service. In 2023, Waymo visited Santa Monica as part of its Los Angeles expansion, and now you can catch one of its robotaxis cruising around LA, from Santa Monica to Beverly Hills and Hollywood. In New York, Waymo's cars will stick to manual driving for now, with human drivers covering routes from just north of Central Park all the way down to The Battery, plus parts of Downtown Brooklyn, according to TechCrunch. They're also mapping areas across the river in Jersey City and Hoboken. Waymo applied last month for a permit to test its self-driving cars in NYC with a safety driver, but it hasn't gotten the green light yet. This isn't Waymo's first time in New York, either. Back in late 2021, it sent a small fleet to map parts of Manhattan and New Jersey. Earlier this year, it took a trip up to Buffalo to see how its tech handles winter weather. Even if Waymo does get approval to start autonomous testing in the city, it'll still be a while before you see empty robotaxis driving around. New York doesn't allow fully driverless cars without a human up front -- something Waymo is hoping to change. For now, Waymo's robotaxi services are running in Atlanta, Austin, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, with plans to launch in Miami later this year and Washington D.C. in 2026.