Tesla Robotaxi Rival Waymo Announces California Expansion As Autonomous Taxi Race Heats Up

Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) autonomous vehicle company Waymo, has announced it will expand its ride-hailing services following regulatory approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.

What Happened: The company took to the social media platform X as it shared the announcement on its official X handle on Monday.

"We're very excited to share that the CPUC has approved our application to operate our fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in the South Bay and nearly all of San Jose!" The company said in the post.

Waymo also said that the CPUC approval for the expansion of its service would not affect the company's operations in the near future.

Why It Matters: Waymo has been at the forefront of the Autonomous Taxi sector in the U.S., as Gerber Kawasaki‘s Ross Gerber hailed the company's tech as being "better than a human."

Waymo also recently announced it hit the 250,000 weekly paid autonomous robotaxi trips milestone and announced a collaboration with Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM) to explore personal ownership options of AVs.

Waymo isn't the only company at play in the sector, though, with ride-sharing giant Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) also making moves in the segment through partnerships with companies like self-driving startup Pony AI (NASDAQ:PONY).

Elsewhere, experts like Wedbush Investment's Dan Ives believe Tesla Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TSLA) robotaxi launch in June won't be affected by Waymo's partnership with Toyota. "Tesla will own the autonomous market in my view and no one can compete with their scale and scope," Ives shared.

Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

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