Waymo is expanding robotaxi service to San Francisco International Airport and more cities. Source: Waymo
Even as developers of humanoid robots and artificial intelligence benefit from investor interest, autonomous vehicles show little sign of slowing down. Waymo LLC yesterday said it has raised $16 billion, bringing its valuation to $126 billion.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it plans to use the funding to bring its Waymo Driver to more cities across the U.S. and the world. Waymo recently announced autonomous ride-hailing service to San Francisco International Airport.
In the past year, Waymo has rolled out robotaxis in Austin, Detroit, Las Vegas, and San Diego. It began testing in Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Miami, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Tampa, New York, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C., and it mapped Boston. The company also said it plans to bring self-driving cars to London, as well as Dallas, Houston, Orlando, and San Antonio this year.
Waymo is hiring for 249 open software engineering positions and 31 hardware engineer positions. It is also looking for staffers for its operations and supply chain, product and design, AI, and general and administrative teams.
Waymo touts safety record despite recent incidents
“This milestone is built on a foundation of safety that is now statistically superior to human driving,” asserted Waymo.
Waymo said autonomous driving has been proven safer than manual operations. Source: Waymo
“Across 127 million miles of fully autonomous operation—the equivalent of going to the moon and back over 260 times—we have achieved a 90% reduction in serious injury crashes,” it said. “This is the direct result of a driver that is never affected by the leading causes of road tragedy, including distraction, impairment, and fatigue.”
A December 2024 study with insurer Swiss Re compared the Waymo Driver with human baselines, finding a reduction of 88% in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims. That is a significant reduction, but recent incidents showed that it’s very difficult to completely eliminate accidents.
Just last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into an incident in which a child was struck as she ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV. In December 2025, Waymo recalled its software after several of its autonomous vehicles (AVs) failed to stop for school buses.
In May 2025, the company updated 1,212 robotaxis to address risks of collisions with chains, gates, and other roadway barriers. Waymo cited its growing mileage in autonomous operations as proof that its technology is safe and that its services are becoming essential.
“In 2025 alone, we more than tripled our annual volume to 15 million rides, surpassing 20 million lifetime rides to date,” it said. “Today, with more than 400,000 rides provided every week across six major U.S. metropolitan areas, we have demonstrated that our technology is not just the most advanced manifestation of AI in the physical world, but a vital service that people have come to rely on in their daily lives.”
Funding to fuel the next lap in AV race
Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital led Waymo’s latest funding round, in addition to support from Waymo and Google Inc. parent company Alphabet Inc. The investors said that Waymo’s lead in getting operational data will help it stay ahead in the AV commercialization race.
“Waymo has not only taught a car to drive itself, but to do so meaningfully better than any human or competing system, and we believe that lead will endure,” stated Jared Middleman, a partner at Dragoneer. “We have studied autonomous driving for over a decade and could not be more excited to back Tekedra [Mawakana, co-CEO], Dmitri [Doglov, co-CEO], the formidable engineering team, and the entire Waymo organization, who are poised to permanently change how people and goods move through communities around the globe.”
“As a technology leader in the trillion-dollar transportation market, Waymo has moved beyond research milestones to achieve operational excellence, tripling its weekly paid rides in just one year while maintaining customer delight,” noted Konstantine Buhler, a partner at Sequoia. “Waymo is an exceptional business, leveraging its compounding data advantage to usher in a new era of transportation and a safety culture that can save millions of lives.”
Waymo also received significant investments from Andreessen Horowitz and Mubadala Capital as well as Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price. In addition, participants included BDT & MSD Partners, CapitalG, Fidelity Management & Research Company, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Perry Creek Capital, and Temasek.
“Waymo has brought autonomous driving from science fiction to reality,” said Saurabh Gupta, co-founder of DST Global. ‘It’s saving lives already, with significantly fewer serious injury crashes compared to human drivers.”
Other recent fundings of AV developers include:
- $1 billion for Waabi
- $600 million for Applied Intuition
- $430 million for Motional
- $375 million for Avride
- $203 million for Nuro (in addition to $106 million earlier in 2025)
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