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Futuristic robotaxis are coming to Gotham — and could make the city’s iconic yellow cabs a thing of the past.
Driverless rideshare service Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, deployed its fleet to New York City this week to begin mapping out the city roads – with humans still sitting behind the wheel while they await a change in state law to allow fully driverless riding.
“We’re on the move in the Big Apple,” the company posted on X Monday night. “We’ve begun testing in New York – be sure to give us a wave and snap a pic if you see us in the city.”
Waymo submitted its DOT application last month, which will include a “human safety operator” behind the wheel to comply with the state rules, a DOT rep said.
“We are working hard to bring Waymo to New Yorkers in the future, starting with this testing and advocating for changes to state law,” the rep said.
A pair of state bills introduced in January – both of which are stuck in committee – seek to overturn the matter.
If approved, it would be the city’s first testing fleet of autonomous vehicles, according to a Waymo rep — who added the service won’t be providing rides to the public during testing.
“The data to date shows that Waymo outperforms human drivers, significantly reducing the frequency of injury-causing traffic collisions,” the Waymo rep added, claiming the service’s trips result in 78% fewer injury-causing collisions, including 93% fewer that involve pedestrians, and 81% fewer that involve cyclists, compared to human-driven ride shares.
The arrival of robotaxis in New York City could also mean upending the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of taxi and ride share drivers.
“What’s the plan for potential joblessness of over 200,000 New Yorkers and the plan to keep one million riders a day safe?” Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the NY Taxi Workers Alliance, told Fox 5 before testing began.
The electric vehicles, equipped with self-driving technology, will be tasked this summer with mapping out the concrete jungle’s terrain in Manhattan and Brooklyn – including Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Downtown Brooklyn and Boerum Hill – and use collected data to improve the artificial intelligence.
Jersey City and Hoboken will also be trekked through as part of the metro-area tour, the rep said.
The company first manually drove through Manhattan in 2021, although that trip primarily focused on weather data collection.
This time, the company’s Waymo Driver technology will be collecting information to help its system navigate jaywalkers, cyclists, carriage horses, taxi cabs and street construction.
“We have every intention of bringing our fully autonomous ride-hailing service to the city in the future,” Waymo said in a statement.
Waymo already completes about 250,000 fully driverless trips each week in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta, and is planning to launch its autonomous drivers in Miami later this year and Washington D.C. in 2026.
–Additional reporting by Taylor Herzlich.
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