Waymo Hits 500,000 Weekly Trips as Autonomous Vehicle Race Intensifies

During a family trip to San Francisco, Dani Peled's children experienced Waymo's autonomous vehicle for the first time. The inaugural ride was marked by deep apprehension and tense grips on the vehicle's handles as the passengers watched the steering wheel turn by itself. However, once the first ride ended safely, the fear completely dissipated. By the second and third rides, the autonomous steering wheel became routine, and the children's primary focus shifted to fighting over the vehicle's music selection.

This sensation of a thrilled physical reaction first and rapid normalization second characterizes most passengers in these vehicles, who quickly realize that the service is far safer than riding with a human taxi driver.

Waymo Exposed: Half a Million Trips a Week and a $126 Billion Valuation

Waymo, operating under Google's parent company Alphabet, is no longer in the pilot or experimental stage. The company finished 2025 with about 15 million cumulative trips, and today it reaches a rate of half a million commercial and operational trips every week.

Despite the impressive scale of activity, Waymo is still reported in Google's financial statements under the Other Bets category. This entire segment recorded revenues of $382 million and an operating loss of $1.8 billion, with Waymo's share of total Google revenues standing at less than 0.4%. However, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai clarified to employees that in 2027 the activity is expected to become substantial enough to be presented as a separate line in the reports.

In February of this year, Waymo raised $16 billion at a market valuation of $126 billion—a valuation exceeding many traditional automotive companies. Investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that the autonomous taxi market alone will grow to a scale of over $400 billion.

Waymo's Zeekr vs. Tesla's Cybercab: The Battle of Approaches and Sensors

Today, the robotaxi arena is characterized by a battle of giants between two polarized technological and business approaches:

• Waymo's Approach (Google): The company's new Zeekr model (manufactured by China's Geely and assembled in the USA) costs about $125,000. The vehicle is packed with safety technologies: 13 cameras, 4 LiDAR (laser) sensors, and 6 radars, alongside reliance on high-resolution maps. Google argues that a multi-modal combination of sensors is essential for dealing with harsh weather conditions and road obstacles.

• Tesla's Approach (Elon Musk): Musk unveiled the Cybercab in Austin, Texas—a golden, futuristic vehicle for just two passengers, with no steering wheel and no brake pedals. The vehicle's price is estimated at only $30,000, and it relies solely on 8 cameras and visual processing. Musk argues that the vehicle needs to see the road exactly as a human driver sees it.

Musk is trying to sell the public a business model of passive income, according to which individuals could purchase a Cybercab for $30,000 and operate it as a robotaxi that would generate profits for them. However, industry analysts push back: if it's a money printer, why wouldn't Tesla operate the fleet itself and rake in all the revenue? In addition, Musk's lawyers even admitted in court that some of his historical statements regarding autonomous driving were puffery—exaggerated marketing statements.

Proven Safety vs. Scandals

The central issue occupying the public and regulators is the question of safety. Data from an analysis of 220 million cumulative miles of autonomous driving at Waymo present a dramatic picture:

• A 94% drop in severe accidents and fatal injuries compared to a human driver.

• An 82% drop in accidents activating airbags.

• A 93% drop in accidents involving pedestrian impacts.

• An 84% drop in impacts with bicyclists and motorcyclists.

Statistically, independent human driving when a robotaxi option is available increases the risk of a severe accident by a factor of 17.

Conversely, Cruise (General Motors' subsidiary) suffered a fatal blow that led to the closure of its robotaxi operations. This occurred after a company vehicle struck a pedestrian (who was thrown under its wheels by a human-driven car) and dragged her for a distance of 7 meters. A federal investigation revealed that Cruise falsified data: while it reported one human intervention every 19,000 miles, in practice technological or human intervention was required every 5 miles. The company was fined half a million dollars and public trust in it collapsed.

Now, the U.S. administration has also opened an investigation against Tesla, due to the lack of manual control means or brakes in the Cybercab in an emergency. In Texas, concern even arose among fire services regarding how to tow a stuck vehicle without a steering wheel, with Musk responding by suggesting control via a joystick on the screen.

The Global Angle: The Chinese Model and Competition with Uber

While in the US companies zealously guard their developments, in China the central government leads a technology-sharing policy. About 80% of the components in Chinese autonomous vehicles (sensors, cameras, and LiDARs) are shared among competitors at internal transfer prices. This model enables rapid price reduction and the achievement of technological supremacy. China's Baidu, which operates the Apollo Go service, recorded over 300,000 trips a week in the final quarter of 2025.

Simultaneously, Uber underwent a dramatic transformation. After Waymo stopped integration into the Uber app in Phoenix to reap all the revenue itself, Uber announced a $10 billion investment in robotaxis. To fund this, Uber laid off 3,300 employees and partnered with China's Pony.ai to deploy 2,000 autonomous taxis in Europe.

The Human Cost, Regulation, and the Road to Israel

The expansion of autonomous taxis immediately endangers about 4.6 million jobs in the US:

• 440,000 taxi and limousine drivers.

• 460,000 food delivery drivers.

• 1.5 million package delivery drivers.

• 2.2 million truck drivers.

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani stopped the autonomous pilot to protect yellow cab driver unions. Following targeted media reports on isolated accidents, public support for the safety of autonomous vehicles dropped from 52% in 2018 to only 40% in 2025.

This shift recalls the historical analogy of elevator operators. Until 1950, elevators were operated by human operators. A major strike in 1945 that forced citizens to walk up dozens of floors led to the introduction of the first automatic elevator in 1950, and since then the profession has disappeared from the world.

And what about Israel? In Israel, the use of fully autonomous driving systems is still illegal. The country serves as a leading technological development center (such as Mobileye, planned to launch a robotaxi service in 2027), but local regulation poses considerable difficulties for field testing. Only after European regulatory approval enters into force in the second half of 2027 is the path expected to open for the operation of autonomous systems on Israeli roads.

Will Today's Children Still Need a Driver's License?

Despite the rapid pace of technological development, Goldman Sachs projections indicate a gradual transition process. According to estimates, in 2035 only about 3 million autonomous vehicles will move on US roads—out of a total fleet of about 300 million vehicles.

This means that the current generation of children will still be required to learn to drive and obtain a driver's license in the coming years. The autonomous revolution is already here and conquering major cities, but a complete separation from the human steering wheel will take more time.