On Tuesday,Waymo, which already operated in Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix without safety drivers, added Atlanta.
In China, Apollo Go owned by Baidu has 1,000 robotaxis on the road in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan and several more Chinese cities.
A handful of companies are operating public trials and services in the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.
Smaller cities are also being included by some companies and they are often where they launched their first trial services to test in smaller environments with less traffic.
While initial Chinese trials were often free and even on an application basis, new low fare structures for robotaxis in China have already ruffled feathers with taxi drivers.
While Chinese company WeRide is already operating in Abu Dhabi and is conducting non-public tests in San Jose in the United States, Apollo Go has announced plans to expand to Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Many current robotaxis are limited to specific areas, times of day or distances and might have a remote safety operator, who under Chinese law can look after as many as three taxis.
Some operations in China also include on-board safety drivers, which are present but are not needed for any specific manoeuvres of the vehicle.
GM’s Cruise robotaxi trial in San Francisco was abandoned after an accident and a Las Vegas service by Motional was suspended in May 2024.
