Waymo starts employee-only driverless rides in Detroit
The company has removed in-car specialists in a limited central-city area but has set no date for public robotaxi service.
Waymo has begun operating fully autonomous vehicles in Detroit, initially giving rides only to its employees while it validates the technology and prepares for a public service. The company said the driverless phase began Oct. 6 after months of local testing with trained specialists behind the wheel.
The employee-only operation is intended to establish a safety framework for Detroit. Waymo said it would open rides to the public only once the technology has been properly validated and local operations are ready, but it has not announced a timetable for a public launch.
The initial area covers downtown and nearby Corktown, Midtown, Hamtramck and Indian Village. Waymo said it would continue driving in those locations while gradually expanding across Metro Detroit, and plans to publish a service-area map before making rides available through its app.
Waymo has operated in Metro Detroit since November 2025, using Chinese-made Zeekr Ojai vehicles as well as white Jaguar I-PACE models, according to The Detroit News. Before removing the in-car specialist, the company mapped intended operating streets and integrated its driving software with local lighting and traffic-safety configurations.
Detroit’s Office of Mobility Innovation met regularly with Waymo before the launch to prepare city agencies, including the police and fire departments, for deployment, WXYZ reported. The city also shared lessons from earlier cold-weather autonomous-vehicle and automated-driving pilots serving senior and disabled residents. Michigan regulates the deployment at the state level.
The move places Detroit among northern cities Waymo is exploring as it seeks to operate in more variable climates. The Zeekr Ojai uses Waymo’s sixth-generation driving system, designed for winter conditions and equipped with updated radar, lidar and cameras. Telemetry analyst Sam Abuelsamid said the system costs about half as much as the fifth-generation equipment used on the Jaguar vehicles.
Waymo says it has logged more than 270 million fully autonomous miles across its operating cities and that its vehicles have had 95% fewer crashes causing serious or fatal injury than human drivers in the same areas. Those company figures sit alongside scrutiny of its operations: the National Transportation Safety Board investigated a January crash in Santa Monica, California, in which a Waymo vehicle struck a 9-year-old child in a school zone, causing minor injuries.
Abuelsamid expected limited Detroit availability by the end of 2026 and wider public access through the Waymo app in early 2027, although he said the timing would depend on the rollout and state permitting rules.