Waymo Expands To UK, Partners With DoorDash, & Poaches Tesla Exec Amid Growth

The robotaxi race is on, and Alphabet-backed Waymo is leading it.

After expanding to several cities across the United States and testing out in Japan, the autonomous mobility company is now bringing its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to London, where it plans to offer rides with no human behind the wheel in 2026.

“We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety and magic of Waymo to Londoners,” said Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. “Waymo is making roads safer and transportation more accessible where we operate. We’ve demonstrated how to responsibly scale fully autonomous ride-hailing, and we can’t wait to expand the benefits of our technology to the United Kingdom.”

Waymo is looking to add to London’s extensive network of bus, tube, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure through a partnership with Moove, which will be its fleet operations partner, bringing a further public transport option through its Waymo app.

Moove and Waymo already have a previous partnership in place, with the former managing fleet operations, facilities, and charging infrastructure of Waymo’s fully autonomous fleet in Phoenix (2025) and Miami (2026). Moove has also partnered with Uber.

Waymo has also partnered with British-founded Jaguar Land Rover, the maker of the all-electric I-PACE vehicles that are used by Waymo in the U.S., having served hundreds of thousands of fully autonomous rides every week, and in Tokyo, Japan.

Waymo has also established its first international engineering hubs in London and Oxford, spanning teams advancing large-scale, closed-loop simulation.

Over the next few months, Waymo will work with authorities to secure necessary permissions and lay the groundwork for its commercial ride-hailing service.


Waymo also announced a partnership with DoorDash in the U.S. to bring users its safety and convenience in grocery and meal deliveries and more in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The service will be rolled out to DoorDash customers in the coming months, where their deliveries could be fulfilled by a fully autonomous Waymo vehicle from a participating merchant if the user has opted in at checkout.

When the vehicle arrives, users can open the trunk using their DoorDash app and grab their items.

Waymo will begin by delivering orders from DashMart—its convenience, grocery, and retail stores—and soon expand to more local Phoenix merchants and a wider range of offerings. Furthermore, DashPass members can avail a special promotional offering for Waymo’s ride-hailing service in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

“We are excited to make everyday errands easier with the Waymo Driver, offering the added peace of mind that comes with our safe and reliable technology,” said Nicole Gavel, Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Waymo. “Through our partnership with DoorDash, we leverage our proven delivery experience to provide customers with a seamless, contact-free way to get items they need, whether it’s groceries or a quick bite.”


Recently, Waymo introduced robotaxi plans for business, which would bring Waymo’s same 24/7 reliability and convenience directly to organizations.

It also announced the arrival of its fully autonomous robotaxis to riders in Nashville, Tennessee, AKA “Music City,” which will be delivered in partnership with ride-hailing service provider Lyft.

These moves come as Waymo “poached” a top Tesla audio engineer to lead its In-car Audio and Infotainment experience efforts in its self-driving vehicles.

“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Technical Leader of Audio Systems at Waymo,” said Nikhil ­Satish, the former Tesla audio and acoustic specialist who led the audio engineering of the Cybertruck, in a post on LinkedIn. 

Waymo and Tesla are direct competitors in the robotaxi and autonomous vehicles sector, one that Tesla has faced criticism and setbacks in recently.

However, one silver lining for the electric vehicle (EV) maker comes in the form of the rollback of the $7,500 federal tax credit available on EVs, seeing automakers General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—the parent company of brands such as Jeep, Chrysler, and more—scrap a variety of EV plans.

This includes Stellantis withdrawing its plan to produce only EVs in Europe by 2030.

Tesla, on the other hand, saw its stocks surge over 5% following a 2.8% rise in sales in September, which became its second-highest monthly total tally of vehicles sold at 71,525, following March’s 74,127 sales.

Do you think Tesla can remain competitive in the EV market and grow in the robotaxi sector to challenge Waymo’s rapid expansion?

Let us know in the comments below!