In an endearing sign of the times, a San Francisco content creator decided to make her first trip in a Waymo a profitable one.

Uber has picked San Francisco to launch a premium robotaxi service that will use Lucid Motors’ all-electric Gravity SUVs equipped with self-driving tech developed by Nuro, in 2026 — a move that puts the ride-hailing giant in direct competition with Waymo.

Earlier this year, Lucid, Uber, and Nuro announced a massive robotaxi deal that would see the deployment of 20,000 autonomous vehicles in the US over the next six years. The fleet will be owned by Uber or a third-party fleet management partner.

Korosec followed up, asking if there had been safety issues that prompted Waymo to "pump the breaks" on its expansion plans throughout the years. The co-CEO said the company pulls back and retests "all the time," pointing to challenges with blocking emergency vehicles as an example.

Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana opened up at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 about the vandalism of its cars and how the company pushes back on government surveillance requests.

Waymo, owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, offers driverless rides in five cities, with plans to expand.

Chinese robotaxi firms are quietly outpacing Waymo globally, launching services in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and targeting Europe as American rivals focus domestically.

Skeptics of robotaxis question whether they will be able to navigate Boston's confusing streets in the depths of winter.

With the two companies now operating ADS vehicles, Electrek compared the NHTSA incident reports between Tesla and Waymo. The outlet found that Tesla Robotaxis were involved in significantly more crashes per miles driven, despite Waymo vehicles not requiring a human safety monitor like Tesla Robotaxis.

My rides in Elon Musk’s supposedly autonomous ride-hailing cars still involved a human overseer in the driver’s seat—among other notable rough edges.