Waymo is testing driverless robotaxis in Nashville

Waymo has pulled the human safety driver from its autonomous test vehicles in Nashville, as the Alphabet-owned company moves closer to launching a robotaxi service in the city.

Waymo, which has been testing in Nashville for months, is slated to launch a robotaxi service there this year in partnership with Lyft. Riders will initially hail rides directly through the Waymo app. Once the service expands, Waymo will also make its self-driving vehicles available through the Lyft app. Lyft has said it will handle fleet services, such as vehicle readiness and maintenance, charging infrastructure, and depot operations, through its wholly owned subsidiary Flexdrive.

Waymo has accelerated its robotaxi expansion and today operates commercial services in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Phoenix. It also has driverless test fleets in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando.

The company tends to follow the same rollout strategy in every new market, starting with a small fleet of vehicles that are manually driven to map the city. The autonomous vehicles are then tested with a human safety operator in the driver’s seat. Eventually, the company conducts driverless testing, often allowing employees to hail rides, before launching a robotaxi service.