Waymo has announced it is laying the groundwork for autonomous ride-hailing in Munich, starting with high-definition mapping and manual driving in the coming weeks. It aims to open a commercial service to the public toward the end of 2027.
Munich is getting robotaxis, though not for a while. Waymo says it is laying the groundwork for fully autonomous ride-hailing in the city, with vehicles appearing on local streets in the coming weeks under manual control.
The sequence is deliberate. High-definition mapping comes first, then testing with trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel, before the company aims to open a commercial service to the public toward the end of 2027.
It arrives with numbers behind it. Waymo reports more than 20 million trips completed and hundreds of thousands of commercial rides a week, on a sixth-generation fleet built to be cheaper to build.
“Munich is a world-class hub for mobility and engineering, and becoming part of this city marks an important milestone in our global expansion,” said co-chief executive Tekedra Mawakana, promising investment in local fleet operations and jobs.
