Waymo's fleet data shows 15 cities but 80% of its robotaxis in two states

Waymo's robotaxi operation now spans 15 U.S. cities and averages roughly 500,000 paid rides a week, but fleet data assembled by TechCrunch shows how unevenly that scale is distributed: about 80% of the company's approximately 4,000 vehicles are deployed in just two states, California and Texas.

Two years of rapid expansion

In September 2024, Waymo offered commercial service in only three cities: Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Since then it has launched in a dozen more, with most of those rollouts arriving within the past year, according to TechCrunch. Ridership has climbed alongside the geographic footprint, and the Alphabet-majority-owned company now averages about half a million paid trips per week.

The remaining 800 or so vehicles outside California and Texas are spread across other states, including Arizona and Florida, which TechCrunch describes as another fast-growing market. California's large share is unsurprising given that Waymo is headquartered in Silicon Valley and did much of its early development work there, the outlet notes.

Texas is where the fleet is growing

The most notable recent shift is in Texas. Citing state vehicle registrations and data from the Texas Autonomous Vehicle Fleet Tracker, TechCrunch reports that Waymo's Texas fleet grew by 49% in the three weeks leading up to September 24, when it stood at 1,102 registered autonomous vehicles.

Waymo entered the state through a partnership with Uber, launching commercial service in Austin in March 2025 with rides hailable through the Uber app. It has since expanded to Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The Texas fleet stayed relatively flat over the summer, moving from about 600 vehicles in June to just over 700 by the end of August, before the September surge, which TechCrunch attributes to deliveries of the Ojai minivan. That model now accounts for roughly a third of Waymo's Texas fleet, a share expected to keep rising.

A Chinese-built minivan at the center of the plan

The Ojai is, underneath Waymo's branding, a modified Zeekr RT built on the SEA-M platform from Zeekr's parent Geely, the Chinese group that also owns Volvo. According to TechCrunch, the base vehicles arrive in the U.S. without Chinese connected-car technology installed and are then fitted with Waymo's self-driving system at a factory in Arizona.

The vehicle carries Waymo's sixth-generation autonomy system, an interior designed to tolerate heavy rider use, an upgraded rider interface, and Google's Gemini AI acting as an in-car assistant. The strategy behind it is cost: the minivan is meant to be inexpensive enough to help Waymo reach profitability and mass scale. For now, U.S. tariffs on China-built vehicles are offsetting much of the savings, raising the cost of every Ojai Waymo imports.

Waymo appears willing to absorb that hit. MoffettNathanson, a research firm that tracks Ojai imports through detailed shipping records, said in its September report that Waymo is on course to bring 5,100 of the vehicles into the U.S. by the end of the year. TechCrunch expects Texas to take many of them, along with Florida, where Waymo operates in three cities, and newer markets such as Las Vegas.

Why it matters

The fleet data offers a concrete checkpoint on the commercialization of autonomous driving. Waymo's headline growth is real, with 15 cities and half a million weekly rides, but the concentration shows the expansion rests on depth in a handful of markets rather than even national coverage. It also exposes a supply-chain tension at the heart of the scale-up: the vehicle Waymo is counting on to cut unit costs and reach profitability is built in China and taxed by U.S. tariffs on arrival. Whether the incoming wave of Ojai imports translates into broad growth beyond California and Texas, or simply deepens the concentration in those two states, is the question the next round of registration data will help answer.