Waymo is coming back to New York City next month for round two of testing its autonomous rideshare service, but that doesn’t mean you can hop in one yet.

To start, cars will “drive autonomously with a [human] specialist behind the wheel while we’re in the city,” Waymo says. New York City currently does not permit vehicles without a human behind the wheel, but Waymo says it has applied for a permit with the NYC Department of Transportation; if approved, it would be the first company to deploy a test fleet of autonomous vehicles in the city.

Waymo first tested in NYC in 2021, but it currently only operates fully autonomous rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and soon, Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, DC. In Austin (and eventually, Atlanta), you can request a ride via the Uber app.

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Can Autonomous Software Handle NYC’s Complexity?

Many technical challenges remain. The Big Apple is full of complex, unpredictable scenarios for the Waymo Driver software to handle: Jaywalking pedestrians, trucks parked in the street, complex intersections, heavy rains, and harsh winter weather, to name a few.

The Waymo Driver has never been “in charge of the driving task in New York City” and “as far as US cities go, it is certainly one of the most dense and dynamic!” a Waymo spokesperson tells us. Still, the company has “every intention of bringing our fully autonomous ride-hailing service to the city in the future.”

The taxi business in New York has already been transformed over the last decade by the introduction of Uber and Lyft. Introducing autonomous rides would be another uncomfortable shift, and automate many of these jobs. While Waymo may argue that it would only increase the total pool of jobs, New York is actively working to reduce the total number of cars on the road through congestion pricing, which has reduced the number of cars on the road since it started in January, The New York Times reports.

Although New York may be a tough nut to crack, Waymo remains leagues ahead of the competition. In fact, it hardly has any rivals now that General Motors-backed Cruise is no longer in operation. Also this week, Waymo expanded its service area in California by 80 square miles in San Francisco and Los Angeles, bringing it to a total of 250 square miles.

However, there are still limitations within the cities. For example, Waymos can’t pick up or drop off at the SFO or LAX airports.

Tesla is now waiting in the wings. Its long-awaited robotaxi service is scheduled to debut on June 22, but only with 10 cars (Model Ys), and in a limited portion of the city. However, Tesla has a history of pushing back launch dates, and it may happen again this time since the company is “being super paranoid about safety,” CEO Elon Musk says on X.

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About Emily Forlini

Senior Reporter

I’m the expert at PCMag for all things electric vehicles and AI. I’ve written hundreds of articles on these topics, including product reviews, daily news, CEO interviews, and deeply reported features. I also cover other topics within the tech industry, keeping a pulse on what technologies are coming down the pipe that could shape how we live and work.

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