Washington To Get Waymo's Robotaxi, As Volkswagen, Valeo & Mobileye Enhance Self-Driving

Autonomous vehicles have been a hot topic over the past few months.

On one hand, driverless truck manufacturers such as Aurora are gearing up to launch safe vehicles, while Torc is partnering with NVIDIA and Flex to build scalable high-performance production hardware and software platforms

On the other hand, self-driving car makers such as Waymo and Tesla recently expanded their operational areas and technologies.

Now, these two companies are back in the news.

Through a blog post published on its website, the Alphabet-owned robotaxi service company Waymo announced it was preparing to launch in a new city, and this one is big! Waymo is making its way to the capital of the United States—Washington, D.C.

The company’s fully autonomous ride-hailing service will be available to users through the Waymo One app in 2026.

To be fair, the company has already operated in the capital—albeit on a test run—over a year ago. It also returned to the city earlier in January. Waymo will now work with policymakers to deploy its services safely and responsibly while also laying the foundation to begin operations.

“Waymo One is making fully autonomous driving a reality for millions of people across the U.S.,” said Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. “We’re excited to bring the comfort, consistency, and safety of Waymo One to Washingtonians, those who work and play in the city every day, and the millions of people from around the world who travel to the District every year.”

Currently, Waymo provides more than 200,000 fully autonomous paid trips each week across San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin. Next on its list are Atlanta and Miami, followed by the country’s capital.


Tesla, a leader in the EV (electric vehicle) sector, has also been keen on deploying robotaxis for a while. The Elon Musk-led company recently showed off what its robotaxis (called Cybercab and Robovan) are expected to look like.

The company is set to launch its paid, “unsupervised full self-driving" ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas, in June.

In the company’s last earnings call, Musk said, “We feel confident in being able to do an initial launch of unsupervised, no one in the car, full self-driving in Austin in June. We already have Teslas operating autonomously unsupervised full self-driving at our factory in Fremont, and we’ll soon be doing that at our factory in Texas.”

Here, “unsupervised” refers to Teslas driving themselves at low speeds on private roads, most often to loading areas. It also reflects Tesla’s stance on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature that requires a supervisor in the driver’s seat at all times.

However, the company has been promising cars that can actually drive themselves without the need for human intervention over the past few years. Whether the June launch will be able to deliver this is yet to be seen, as Musk also said the cars will operate with “no one in the car,” which doesn’t rule out teleoperators driving the cars remotely from other locations.

Tesla was also granted its first-ever ride-hailing permit in California, courtesy of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which allows it to operate commercial vehicles under certain conditions. Currently, they can only transport their employees. 


Volkswagen is also preparing its self-driving fleet.

In a press release published on its website, Volkswagen Group announced it’s working with Valeo and Mobileye to upgrade its advanced driver assistance systems up to Level 2+ (enhanced partially automated driving) in its upcoming vehicles.

It will also bring capabilities such as traffic jam assist, hazard detection, parking assist, driver monitoring, and 360-degree emergency assist, with future-ready capabilities such as augmented reality displays.

This will be based on its MQB platform—Modularer Querbaukasten or Modular Transverse Toolkit—which is Volkswagen’s most widely used technology platform. MQB is a flexible automotive platform that can be used in various models, such as small hatchbacks and SUVs. It enabled efficient space utilization and diverse powertrain options, including electric and hybrid.

“This cooperation supports us on our road to transformation: by sourcing hardware and software together, we streamline procurement, reduce complexity, and improve efficiency. It also empowers our performance program by enhancing technology while keeping costs competitive, ensuring high-quality solutions for our customers,” said Volkswagen’s Dirk Große-Loheide.


Automakers around the world are investing big in the technology, while tech companies are driving innovation to enhance functionalities.

To this effect, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley created a framework called Data & Reasoning Fabric (DRF), which consists of a set of software infrastructure, tools, protocols, governance, and policies that allow safe, secure data sharing and logical prediction-making across different operators and machines.

NASA’s DRF was originally built to provide self-flying drones with decision-making capabilities but is now being tested for other uses, including allowing cars to receive traffic data safely and securely from nearby stoplights and share data with other vehicles on the road. It’s built to work across different makes and models.

“Companies are developing autonomous technology, but their systems aren’t designed to work with technology from competitors. The DRF technology bridges that gap, organizing these systems to work together in harmony,” said David Alfano, Chief of the Intelligent Systems Division at Ames. 

Even Australian Catholic University has developed AI-powered camera technology that allows cars to react faster than an Olympic sprinter, be safer, see in 3D, and become more affordable.

Using a single monocular camera and its MonoFG system, ACU’s technology offers state-of-the-art accuracy and costs just $300 per unit. In comparison, a LiDAR system can cost up to $75,000. MonoFG can detect and navigate complex environments by distinguishing foreground and background.

"This isn't just a concept-MonoFG has been tested on real-world datasets, proving that affordable, AI-driven self-driving technology is within reach,” said ACU Associate Professor Walayat Hussain.

Even AI (artificial intelligence) leader NVIDIA made big announcements at its GTC 2025 event.

Do you think self-driving cars and technology that enables such vehicles will be the next big thing in the automotive industry?

Let us know in the comments below!