Waymo Robotaxi Expansion Reaches 15 Cities as Zoox Adds Houston

Two Companies, Two Kinds of Growth

Waymo and Zoox both announced expansions in early September, but the two announcements were not the same kind of news. Waymo started selling rides to the public in three new cities. Zoox announced that it would start mapping two more. That difference explains most of where the U.S. robotaxi race stands.

On September 1, Alphabet's Waymo began paid driverless service in Denver, San Diego and Tampa. Amazon-owned Zoox said the same week that it would start testing in Houston and San Diego, using retrofitted Toyota Highlander SUVs with human drivers on board25. Waymo added Las Vegas on September 14, its first public market in Nevada, which puts it in 15 U.S. metro areas4. On October 14 it removed the waitlists in San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa, so anyone in those cities can now download the app and book a ride. The San Antonio opening includes fully autonomous trips at San Antonio International Airport11.

Zoox now has a presence in 12 U.S. markets25. But it still charges fares only in Las Vegas, and it has not said when paid service will start in San Francisco25. Coverage that treats the two companies as rivals at a similar stage misses this. Waymo is filling in a map it has already drawn. Zoox is still drawing its map, even though it has an important regulatory milestone that Waymo doesn't need.

Waymo's Pace Has Changed

The numbers show how much faster Waymo is moving. In September 2024 it operated in three cities: Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco9. On February 24 of this year it opened Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando in one day, which brought it to 10 metros18. In July it announced San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa and Denver together19. All four were carrying public riders by mid-September4.

Ridership has grown with the map. Paid trips rose from about 50,000 a week in May 2024 to more than 500,000 a week this year10. The fleet has passed 4,000 vehicles10. Around 80% of those vehicles are in California and Texas, and Waymo's registered fleet in Texas grew 49% in three weeks to 1,102 vehicles as of September 249. The research firm MoffettNathanson tracks shipping records and expects Waymo to import 5,100 of its Zeekr-built Ojai minivans by the end of the year9. Waymo has said it is aiming for more than one million rides a week by year-end12.

The money has grown too. Waymo raised $16 billion in February at a $126 billion valuation3. On October 8 it closed its first term loan, worth $5 billion, to pay for further expansion in the U.S. and abroad16. Taking on debt suggests Waymo now sees robotaxis as a capital-heavy rollout of something that already works, not a research project. Lenders generally want to see cash flow coming. Investors also point out that adding cities does not show what each city will eventually earn6. That is the strongest objection to the bullish case, and growth on the map alone won't answer it.

Coverage disagrees about how to count Waymo's cities. Several outlets said 14 after the September 1 launches, and others said 15 once Las Vegas opened74. One outlet put it at "14 to 15" in a headline that also said 2014. The confusion comes from Waymo's rollout method. Each city opens first to invited riders on a rolling basis and only later to everyone, so the date a city "launches" depends on which stage you count4. The October 14 openings mark the stage that matters most to riders, when anyone can book a ride without waiting for an invitation.

Zoox's Different Approach

Zoox's main achievement this year was regulatory. On July 30, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) granted it a first-of-its-kind exemption to deploy its purpose-built robotaxi commercially30. The vehicle has no steering wheel and no pedals. The exemption allows up to 2,500 vehicles a year for two years, with closer oversight27. Zoox began charging fares in Las Vegas on August 10. That made it the first paid service in the U.S. using a vehicle built without manual controls4. Since September 3 it has also served Harry Reid International Airport4.

Beyond Las Vegas, Zoox is much smaller. It has about 100 robotaxis across four cities, mostly in Las Vegas and San Francisco5. One outside estimate puts its Las Vegas fleet at just over 30 vehicles5. Reports differ on Austin and Miami. Some say Zoox gives free rides in both cities8, while a detailed tracker says rides there are limited to employees and their friends and family4. The narrower description matches the company's own March announcement, which said rides in both cities would start with employees and their circles before a public waitlist opened24.

The new Houston and San Diego markets don't carry any passengers. Both start with manual mapping, and Zoox has given no timeline for passenger service. It has called Houston its most sprawling market so far, pointing to service roads, unusual merges, heat and urban flooding4. The federal exemption also doesn't settle state rules. Zoox still needs state and local approval to charge fares outside Las Vegas, and California requires separate permits for driverless deployment4.

Zoox has more room to grow in Nevada soon. A state cap that limited it to 100 robotaxis there is set to expire5. The company has said it will steadily add vehicles but has not said how many5. Its Hayward, California, factory is ramping up production4. A planned summer launch on the Uber app has slipped to later this year4.

Las Vegas Is the Direct Test

The two companies now compete directly in Las Vegas, and that is where the contest is easiest to judge. Zoox arrived first with paid service in August3. Waymo followed with a few dozen Ojai minivans in a service area of about 23 square miles that covers much of the Strip5. Waymo says more than 100,000 people signed up for rides there6. Nevada transportation regulators have also approved permits for Tesla, Uber and Waymo that together could bring up to 7,000 robotaxis to Clark County over the next 12 months5.

Las Vegas puts the two strategies side by side. Zoox's bet is that a vehicle designed from the start to have no driver gives a better ride and lower long-term costs28. Waymo's bet is that operating experience and fleet size matter more, and the Ojai is its own move toward purpose-built hardware6. Visitors on the Strip will be the first to compare the two directly.

Regulation and Public Trust

The broader reporting suggests the expansion is still fragile. NHTSA has opened a new investigation into Waymo vehicles passing stopped school buses. The trigger was footage of a Waymo car going around an unloading bus in Atlanta in early October, and the reporting cites 20 citations in Austin this school year14. Minneapolis has proposed requiring a paid human safety monitor in every driverless car, which Waymo calls a ban in practice. Polling cited in the same coverage found that 71% of Americans remain uncomfortable riding in robotaxis8. Waymo cites internal data showing far fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers1. Independent analysts warn that Waymo is the only operator that publishes the mileage figures needed to check claims like that4.

Any high-profile incident can slow rollouts in every market, because each new city is effectively a new negotiation with regulators2. The school bus investigation is that kind of risk, and it arrives just as Waymo is opening its service to everyone in more cities.

The Takeaway

It's tempting to describe this as a close two-way race, but the evidence doesn't support that. Waymo offers public service in 15 metros, completes around half a million paid rides a week and has billions in fresh capital. Zoox charges fares in one city with a fleet of about 100 vehicles95. Zoox's federal exemption is a real advance for vehicles without driver controls, and Las Vegas will show whether that design wins over riders. For now, though, Waymo's main limits are regulators, public trust and unit economics, not competition. The school bus investigation and proposals like Minneapolis's will matter more to Waymo's next year than anything Zoox does.