Robotaxis

Which company is winning the robotaxi race?

Answered from the record

On DEPLOY's verified record, Waymo leads the robotaxi race. Waymo runs verified robotaxi service in more cities than any operator DEPLOY tracks, holds the most operational deployment records, and is the only fleet at commercial maturity at that scale. But DEPLOY's deployment record is US-weighted, so Chinese operators like Baidu Apollo Go and WeRide report far larger footprints than DEPLOY independently verifies. This ranks verified coverage, not the whole world.

✓ Last verified Jul 21, 202624 sources

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There is a clear leader on DEPLOY's record, and there is an honest caveat, and both matter. The leader is Waymo. It runs verified, fare-charging robotaxi service in more cities than any other operator DEPLOY tracks, it holds the most operational deployment records, and it is the only operator whose robotaxi model has reached commercial maturity across that many markets.

Tesla is the fastest mover, standing up service in a run of new metros through 2025 and 2026, though its model is still at pilot maturity. Zoox and Pony AI run real service in a handful of cities each, and Cruise, which once led in San Francisco, has wound its program down. That is who leads on the numbers that are on the record.

The caveat is scope. DEPLOY's deployment record is weighted toward the United States, so Chinese operators like Baidu Apollo Go, WeRide, and Pony AI report city counts far larger than DEPLOY independently holds as dated, sourced deployment records. This scorecard therefore ranks verified coverage, not a global tally, and it says so plainly.

Every cell below is a real count from the record, dated and sourced, or left honestly blank where the record holds nothing.

Who leads on what

Each measure is a single, verified ruling scoped to DEPLOY’s record and dated. On the tracked deployment measures one operator leads, but the record is US-weighted, so the ranking is of verified coverage, not the whole world.

Most cities with a verified deployment

Waymo

11 cities on record. On DEPLOY's record as of Apr 7, 2026, from the verified deployment and model records DEPLOY holds.

Most operational deployments on record

Waymo

15 operational of 15 deployments. On DEPLOY's record as of Apr 7, 2026, from the verified deployment and model records DEPLOY holds.

Furthest along: at commercial maturity, most cities

Waymo

Commercial fleet across 11 cities. On DEPLOY's record as of Apr 7, 2026, from the verified deployment and model records DEPLOY holds.

The scope caveat

A US-weighted record

DEPLOY's deployment record is weighted toward markets it can independently verify, so Chinese operators like Baidu Apollo Go and WeRide report city counts larger than DEPLOY holds as dated deployment records. This ranks verified coverage, not a global tally.

The robotaxi race scorecard

Every robotaxi operator DEPLOY tracks that has a verified deployment on record, each cell dated and sourced or left honestly blank where the record holds nothing. Sorted by cities with a verified deployment, the primary measure, then operational deployments. For where you can actually ride today see the rider availability answer.

Robotaxi operators on DEPLOY’s record, sorted by cities with a verified deployment (US-weighted record)
Operator	Cities on record	Deployments (operational)	Furthest maturity	Fleet	Private venture funding	Sources
Waymo Ojai, Waymo Driver (6th gen) · Mountain View, CA	11 Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston +7	1515 op	Commercial	Active	$27.1B4 rounds	Electrive2026-02-25 CNBC2025-11-18 Waymo (official)+66
Tesla Cybercab, Tesla Robotaxi (Model Y ADS) · Austin, Texas, USA	7 Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami +3	1010 op	Pilot	Active	not on record	Tech Insider2026-04-19 Reuters2026-07-21 Reuters2026-06-01+23
Baidu Apollo RT6 · Beijing, China	6 Abu Dhabi, Beijing, China, Chongqing, Dubai +2	76 op	Commercial	Active	Apollo Pre-IPO Strategic Round only	SEC EDGAR (Baidu 6-K, Q1 2026)Baidu Inc. (investor relations, Q3 2025)Baidu (PR Newswire)+39
WeRide Robotaxi GXR · Guangzhou, China	6 Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Beijing, China, Dubai +2	66 op	Commercial	Active	$310M1 round	WeRide2026-03-08 WeRide (SEC 6-K)2026-01-01 WeRide (IR)+39
Cruise Cruise AV (Chevrolet Bolt), Cruise Origin · San Francisco, California, USA	6 Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami +2	70 op	Commercial	Wound down	$6.2B4 rounds	TechCrunch2023-10-12 TechCrunch2023-10-26 Wikipedia2022-06-01+28
Argo AI Argo AI Self-Driving System · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA	5 Austin, Hamburg, Miami, Munich +1	70 op	Pilot	Active	not on record	TechCrunch2022-09-29 TechCrunch2022-10-26 investor.lyft.com+6
Zoox Zoox Robotaxi · Foster City, California, USA	4 Austin, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco	65 op	Pilot	Active	$500M1 round + Acquisition (Amazon)	TechCrunch2024-10-30 Interesting Engineering2025-12-23 NHTSA (ODI)+30
Pony AI Pony Gen-7 Robotaxi · Guangzhou, China	4 Beijing, China, Guangzhou, Shanghai, China, Shenzhen	55 op	Commercial	Active	$664M3 rounds	Pony AI (investor relations)2025-11-06 TechCrunch2025-11-25 Pony.ai Investor Relations+26
Aurora Innovation Aurora Driver · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA	3 Dallas-Houston Corridor, Texas, USA, Fort Worth-El Paso Corridor, Texas, USA, Texas	33 op	Commercial	Active	$90M1 round + SPAC IPO (Reinvent Technology Partners Y)	Aurora commercial launch Texas, April 2025 The Verge2024-05-01 TechCrunch+15
Avride Avride Robotaxi (Hyundai Ioniq 5) · Headquartered in Austin, TX with R&D hubs worldwide; 200+ engineers (verified)	2 Austin, Dallas	33 op	Pilot	Active	$200M1 round	TechCrunch2025-01-01 Dallas Observer2026-05-12 KVUE (Austin ABC)+17
May Mobility May Mobility Autonomous Sienna · Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA	2 Arlington, Grand Rapids	22 op	Commercial	Active	$173M3 rounds	May Mobility: First commercial autonomous shuttle service launches in Grand Rapids, 2019 MLive: May Mobility launches autonomous shuttle in Grand Rapids, Oct 2019 City of Arlington2025-05-01+7
EasyMile EZ10 · Toulouse, France	2 Columbus, Narita, Japan	21 op	Commercial	Active	$55M1 round	EasyMile2025-12-15 VentureBeat2020-02-01 Sifted+2
Volkswagen Group VW ID. Buzz AD · Wolfsburg, Germany	2 Hamburg, Los Angeles	20 op	Pilot	Active	not on record	Volkswagen begins testing its self-driving microbuses in Los Angeles ahead of launch with Uber2026-04-08 MOIA America to deploy autonomous ID. Buzz vehicles on the Uber platform in Los Angeles by the end of 20262026-04-08 MOIA America to deploy autonomous ID. Buzz vehicles on the Uber platform in Los Angeles by the end of 20262026-04-08+9
Nuro Nuro R3, Nuro R2 · Mountain View, CA	1 Houston	41 op	Pilot	Active	$2.3B5 rounds	Nuro (PR Newswire)Domino's Pizza (IR)The Kroger Co. (IR)+28
Motional Motional IONIQ 5 Robotaxi · Boston, Massachusetts, USA	1 Las Vegas	21 op	Pilot	Active	$4.8B3 rounds	KED Global2025-06-01 TechCrunch Uber+7
Gatik Gatik Autonomous Drive · Mountain View, California, USA	1 Bentonville	11 op	Commercial	Active	$85M1 round	Gatik Walmart 2-year fully driverless milestone Tracxn PepsiCo+14
Momenta Global Momenta Robotaxi · Suzhou, China	1 China	11 op	Production	Active	IPO only	China Daily HK2022-01-01 CnEVPost
Verne Verne Robotaxi · Zagreb, Croatia	1 Zagreb, Croatia	11 op	Pilot	Active	not on record	Balkan Green Energy News2026-04-08 Verne
AutoX AutoX RoboTaxi · Shenzhen, China	1 Shenzhen	11 op	Commercial	Wound down	$260M2 rounds	AutoX: fully driverless robotaxi launch in Shenzhen Wired: AutoX launches fully driverless robotaxi in Shenzhen, Dec 2020 TechCrunch+6
Didi Autonomous Driving Didi Robotaxi · Beijing, China	1 Guangzhou	10 op	Pilot	Active	$781M2 rounds	TechNode2025-12-02 Pandaily TechCrunch+5
Mobileye Mobileye Drive · Jerusalem, Israel	1 Munich	10 op	Pilot	Active	Acquisition (Intel) only	CnEVPost2023-01-06 Mobileye BusinessWire2021-09-07+18
MOIA ID. Buzz AD · Hamburg, Germany	1 Los Angeles	10 op	Pilot	Active	not on record	Volkswagen Group2026-04-08 Volkswagen Group MOIA+2
Plus PlusDrive · Santa Clara, California, USA	1 Germany	10 op	Commercial	Active	$740M4 rounds	IVECO, Plus, dm-drogerie markt and DSV Launch Automated Trucking Pilot in Germany2023-11-15 Plus Completes Successful Test of Semi-Autonomous Trucks with Partners DSV, dm-drogerie markt, and IVECO2025-05-14 Wikipedia+5

How we know this

Every figure in the scorecard comes from a dated, sourced record in the DEPLOY registry: published robotaxi models, their deployments (each tied to a city), and funding rounds. Each operator's row carries its own sources; here is a sample of the sources behind the leaders on each measure.

Each measure is attributed to what is verified on DEPLOY's record and dated. The primary sort is cities with a verified deployment. The record is weighted toward the United States, so the ranking is of verified coverage, not a global tally: operators report footprints larger than DEPLOY independently holds, and the scorecard says so rather than filling the gap with a guess.

Common questions

Is Waymo winning the robotaxi race?

On DEPLOY's verified record, yes, on the measures DEPLOY tracks. Waymo runs verified robotaxi service in more cities than any other operator on the record, holds the most operational deployment records, and is the only operator whose robotaxi model has reached commercial maturity across that many markets. The caveat is scope: DEPLOY's deployment record is weighted toward the United States, so Chinese operators report larger city counts than DEPLOY independently verifies. Waymo leads DEPLOY's verified coverage, which is not the same as a settled global tally.

Where does Tesla rank in the robotaxi race?

Tesla is the fastest mover on DEPLOY's record. It stood up robotaxi service across a run of new US metros through 2025 and 2026, which puts it second on cities with a verified deployment, behind Waymo. The difference is maturity: Waymo's model is catalogued at commercial maturity while Tesla's Robotaxi model is still at pilot maturity, and parts of Tesla's service run with a human safety operator rather than fully driverless. The scorecard shows Tesla's verified city count and deployment records alongside every other operator.

What about the Chinese robotaxi companies?

Baidu Apollo Go, WeRide, and Pony AI operate large robotaxi fleets in China and report city counts that would rival or exceed Waymo's. DEPLOY holds verified deployment records for some of these operators (Pony AI's service in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, for example) but not for the full footprint they report, because DEPLOY's deployment record is weighted toward markets it can independently verify. That is why this scorecard is scoped to verified coverage: it ranks what DEPLOY holds as dated, sourced deployment records, and it says plainly that the global picture is larger than the record.

What happened to Cruise in the robotaxi race?

Cruise, GM's robotaxi program, once ran a commercial driverless service in San Francisco and was among the leaders. After a serious 2023 pedestrian incident and a permit suspension, GM wound the robotaxi program down, and DEPLOY catalogues its robotaxi models as discontinued. The scorecard keeps Cruise visible and flags its fleet as wound down rather than deleting it, because a program that led and then stopped is part of the honest answer to who is winning. Its dated record lives on the What happened to Cruise page, which this page links.

How does DEPLOY decide who is winning the robotaxi race?

DEPLOY does not decide by narrative. It ranks operators on measures that are actually on the record: the number of distinct cities with a verified deployment, the number of operational deployment records, and how far each operator's robotaxi model has progressed toward commercial maturity. Every figure is a dated, sourced record in the DEPLOY registry, and the primary sort is cities on record. Where the record holds no figure for an operator on a measure, the cell is left honestly blank rather than filled with a guess. The verdict is scoped to that record, not asserted about the whole world.

Keep reading

Where can you actually ride a robotaxi in 2026?Answer Robotaxis & delivery How do delivery robots compare on specs?Answer Robotaxis & delivery Where do delivery robots operate?Answer Robotaxis & delivery Are sidewalk delivery robots legal in the US?Answer Robotaxis & delivery All verified answersHub Every standing question DEPLOY tracks.What happened to Cruise?Record The rise and wind-down of GM's robotaxi program, from the record.

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