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As Tesla kickstarts its ambitious Robotaxi fully autonomous ridehailing services in the USA in a phased manner, the industry is keen to find out if this will be Elon Musk’s new golden goose.Waymo, the company which actually set the ball rolling with autonomous ridehailing service, has added Dallas to its expanding list of cities.

Residents in Dallas will be able to request a driverless ride beginning sometime next year in an attempt to further distance itself from rivals still scrambling to catch up in the autonomous race. Dallas will become the second major Texas city where Waymo will launch its autonomous cabs, following the company’s move into Austin earlier this year as part of a partnership with ridehailing leader Uber.

Waymo going solo this time

Unlike the Austin driverless rides that must be ordered through Uber’s app, Waymo will deploy its Dallas autonomous cabs through its own service and team up with the Avis Budget Group to manage its fleet there. Waymo hasn’t set an exact date in 2026 for its launch in Dallas, which joins Washington D.C. and Miami as cities where the company plans to expand next year.

Waymo’s ridehailing services have already provided more than 250,000 trips in Austin and several other major U.S. cities, including Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. As the company continues to expand into new cities, it is pulling even further ahead from the rest of the pack trying to launch driverless ridehailing services.

The aspiring rivals include Tesla, which launched a limited robotaxi service in Austin last month as a prelude to what CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly promised will be a nationwide fleet of driverless cars, even as the automaker faces legal challenges questioning the capability of its autonomous technology.

Other Waymo rivals

Amazon is also aiming to roll out robotaxis in Las Vegas late this year as part of its Zoox selfdriving division. And Uber and Lyft have been relying on a variety of partnerships to supplement their fleet of humandriven vehicles with more driverless options. While others are still trying to get their selfdriving cabs out of the starting blocks, it has been nearly five years since Waymo’s driverless ridehailing service made its debut in Phoenix with a technology that began as a secret project within Google in 2009. 

Waymo spun out from Google in 2016, but the two companies remain tethered under the same corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. Waymo is still testing the possibility of bringing its own version of robotaxi to at least two other Texas cities — Houston and San Antonio — while also exploring a potential expansion in San Diego, Boston and New York. It is also eyeing Tokyo as its first market outside the U.S.

(With inputs from AP)