DEPLOYDatabase

Deployment

Waymo Driver 6th-gen at Houston

The sixth-generation Waymo Driver is Waymo's autonomous driving stack for fully autonomous robotaxi service. The platform integrates 13 cameras, 4 lidars, 6 radars, and external audio receivers, with overlapping 360° coverage and a detection range up to roughly 500 meters in nominal conditions. Compared to the fifth-generation system on the Jaguar I-PACE, the sixth-gen system uses 42% fewer total sensors. Waymo says the per-unit hardware cost is targeted under $20,000, a more than 50% reduction from the 5th-gen system. Currently runs on the Zeekr RT (sold as the “Ojai” robotaxi, purpose-built without a steering wheel or pedals) and the Hyundai IONIQ 5; began fully autonomous commercial operations in February 2026.

Waymo Driver 6th-gen by Waymo · Operated by Waymo · Machine verified

Track Waymo Driver 6th-gen at Houston

Machine-readable surfaces

Footage

PRIMARY SOURCE
Source: Waymo

Waymo's look at the rider experience during a fully driverless Waymo One trip, with no safety operator in the vehicle. Service is geofenced and permitted city by city.

PRIMARY SOURCE
Source: Waymo

Waymo's guide to hailing a fully autonomous Waymo One robotaxi ride. Service is fully driverless (no safety operator) within geofenced areas; the Waymo Driver is the autonomous system, distinct from the vehicle.

PRIMARY SOURCE
Courtesy of Waymo

Official Waymo video documenting Steve Mahan experiencing the world's first fully autonomous ride on public roads in 2015. The vehicle had no steering wheel, no pedals, and no test driver.

Operator: Waymo (own service, Waymo One app). Waymo announced Houston service in November 2025 (employee-only operations beginning that fall) and launched public/rolling-access service in February 2026, scaling gradually (high-density zones around the Toyota Center and West University). Verified status (May 2026): active public service since February 24, 2026 (fully autonomous, Waymo app); the service area nearly doubled to about 50 sq mi on May 13, 2026 ahead of FIFA World Cup events. Not paused.

Key facts

Launched
Public Feb 2026 (rolling access)
Announcement
Houston service announced November 2025
Start
Employee-only operations began fall 2025
Status
Active public service since February 24, 2026, fully autonomous via Waymo app
Coverage
High-density zones around Toyota Center and West University
Scale
Service area nearly doubled to about 50 sq mi on May 13, 2026
Use Case
Service expansion ahead of FIFA World Cup events

Exposure

Customer segment
consumer
Scale tier
undisclosed

Each exposure value carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.

Safety record

No incidents on record for Waymo Driver 6th-gen at Houston.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Trust tier
Machine verifiedhow tiers work →
Last updated
2026-07-10
Model
Waymo Driver 6th-gen
Company
Waymo
Location
United States/Texas/Houston
Operator
Waymo
Status
operational
Operator type
maker operated
First seen
2026-02-24
ID
6b1556a8-1072-44f2-aae1-1547f16cb088

Timeline

  1. Feb 2026
    First recorded
    Waymo Driver 6th-gen first documented operating at Houston.
  2. May 2026
    created
  3. Jul 2026
    Current status: operational, reviewed
    Latest recorded state. New status transitions append here as the deployment-status recorder produces them.

Claimed vs. verified

Waymo claims 3,500 Waymo Driver 6th-gen units in the field. DEPLOY has independently verified 15 deployment sites and 1,500 units.

The gap between claimed and verified is the Fleet Reality signal. See the Fleet Reality Index.

On the deployment map

Waymo Driver 6th-gen operates in Houston. Explore the full verified map:

Verifications (1)

Sources (7)

  1. Houston employee-only fall 2025, public early 2026 · https://www.aol.com/news/google-owned-waymo-robotaxis-soon-151502821.html · 2025-11-08
  2. Houston public launch Feb 2026 · https://www.electrive.com/2026/02/25/waymo-launches-robotaxi-service-in-four-additional-us-cities/ · 2026-02-25
  3. https://waymo.com/blog/2026/02/dallas-houston-san-antonio-orlando/
  4. https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2026/02/24/houston-waymo-autonomous-ride-hail-robotaxi
  5. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2026/05/13/waymo-expands-houston-robotaxi-service-area-ahead-of-fifa-world-cup-events/
  6. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2026/02/24/544147/waymo-houston-self-driving-cars-fully-autonomous/
  7. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/waymo-texas-florida-2026.html
Methodology: Verified · 7 sources (1 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-10

Verification posture

Verified

High confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-10

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: commercial

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: av

Sources by quality tier

4
unclassified
Unclassified source
1
primary-company-ir
Company IR disclosure
1
secondary-industry-publication
Industry publication
1
secondary-established-publication
Established publication

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for Waymo Driver 6th-gen at Houston.

Common questions

What is the Waymo Driver 6th-gen deployment at Houston?
Waymo Driver 6th-gen, built by Waymo, is recorded as a deployment at Houston on the DEPLOY registry. Waymo operates the deployment directly.
Who operates Waymo Driver 6th-gen at Houston?
Waymo, the manufacturer of Waymo Driver 6th-gen, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.
When did the Waymo Driver 6th-gen deployment at Houston go live?
The deployment is recorded as starting February 24, 2026 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.
Have there been incidents at the Waymo Driver 6th-gen deployment at Houston?
No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.

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