Waymo robotaxis to map Boston

Waymo is sending a small fleet of robotaxis to map the city of Boston. The cars won’t be driving autonomously. Instead, the vehicles will have trained, human autonomous specialists behind the wheel at all times.

The goal of the trip is to explore Boston’s unique – and chaotic – driving environment and understand the differences compared to areas where Waymo routinely operates. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said its robotaxis will be exploring Boston in May and June. The company will begin manual driving through the most complex parts of the city, including the city center and freeways. The robotaxis will also be in Cambridge.

Having lived near Boston my entire life, I can tell you driving here is tricky. The streets are a mess of narrow, winding roads that don’t follow any pattern. It doesn’t offer a grid system like Phoenix and San Francisco, two locations where Waymo offers a robotaxi service for people. Intersections can come at weird angles. You’re constantly dealing with heavy foot traffic, cyclists squeezing through tight spots, and drivers who don’t exactly follow the rules.

And we haven’t even mentioned the weather yet. Boston’s weather, from heavy snow and icy roads in the winter to dense fog and rain throughout the year, can make driving conditions especially challenging for autonomous vehicles.

Boston is part of Waymo’s 10-city road trip across the United States in 2025. Other stops on the tour include Dallas, Las Vegas, and Nashville. Waymo explored New York in late 2021 and has yet to launch a robotaxi service there. We have asked Waymo to clarify its future plans for Boston, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up for it launching a service in Boston any time soon. We will update this article when we hear back from Waymo on that.

By adding Boston to the list of cities explored, Waymo continues its commitment to developing technology that adapts to a wide range of urban settings. The insights gained from this road trip will help shape the future of autonomous driving in complex and varied environments. The company has previously explained how these road trips advance its autonomous driving technology, saying “experience is the best teacher.”

“To bring the benefits of our technology to more people in more places and deliver on our mission to improve road safety, we take the Waymo Driver on road trips to regions where the driving culture and conditions differ from the areas we regularly operate,” the company wrote in 2023.

Waymo is now providing more than 250,000 paid trips each week across its robotaxi fleets in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. Waymo is also planning to launch robotaxi services in Miami, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.

Waymo is also now testing its robotaxis on public roads in Tokyo. This marks the company’s first deployment outside the U.S. During the testing, trained drivers will manually drive the robotaxis across seven Tokyo wards, including Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chūō, Shinagawa, and Kōtō. Waymo said this manual operation will provide its engineers with experience to test, refine, and adapt its autonomous driving technology to local roads.

Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo’s largest taxi company, will oversee the management and servicing of the vehicles. Waymo trained the teams from taxicab app provider GO and Nihon Kotsu on fleet-management best practices and established first-responder training protocols.

Waymo was named the 2025 Robot of the Year by The Robot Report. Waymo and all the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards winners were honored at the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston two weeks ago.

Waymo also just partnered with Toyota. The companies are collaborating on a new autonomous vehicle platform to bring autonomous driving capabilities to the next generation of personally-owned vehicles.