Waymo to bring autonomous ride-hailing to Las Vegas

Alphabet's self-driving subsidiary, Waymo, has announced the launch of its autonomous ride-hailing service to the general public in Las Vegas, marking its first commercial expansion into Nevada. The rollout will begin with a fleet of several dozen autonomous vehicles, using Waymo's sixth-generation self-driving system integrated into the Ojai robotaxi built on the Zeekr vehicle platform, with intentions to scale fleet capacity over time. This launch significantly intensifies competition in the autonomous vehicle market against Amazon's Zoox, which started commercial rides in Las Vegas last month, and Tesla's planned robotaxi offerings. Waymo continues to accelerate its geographic footprint, adding Nevada to its active markets in California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona, while preparing further expansions into Denver, San Diego, and Tampa. Following a $16 billion funding round in February that pegged its valuation at $126 billion, Waymo's aggressive expansion underscores Alphabet's ambition to monetize autonomous driving and establish market leadership in commercial robotaxi fleets across major metropolitan centers.