Waymo is making its way to new York city

Andrew Romero reported late last week for 9to5 Google that Waymo has teased New York City as its next place it plans to “plant autonomous ride-sharing.” As Romero caveats, however, the proverbial seeds are going to take some time to bear fruit.

According to Romero, the Alphabet-owned Waymo took to X last week to share it has officially initiated the process to get its autonomous vehicles running on the streets of New York City. The company announced it has applied for a permit with the city’s Department of Transportation as a first step, noting a “specialist” from the agency will be sitting behind the wheel of Waymo’s Jaguar SUVs. Waymo also noted it’s working with state lawmakers to amend legislation so as to legalize fully autonomous vehicles.

“We want to serve more people in more places, including New York,” Waymo said.

The NYC news comes after Waymo announced expansion to Washington DC in March.

I’ll have more Waymo news on Curb Cuts in the coming weeks, but for now, any news of expansion is great for accessibility’s sake. Last week, I took part in a panel discussion at the Accessible Futures conference during which I spoke of the immense accessibility gains rideshare services have for Blind and low vision people such as myself. Of course Lyft and Uber have relevance here, but I spoke most enthusiastically of Waymo and the positive effects it has on my life. (Video and a transcript will be posted soon, I’m told.) As Waymo attests, there’s a helluva lot of bureaucratic stuff to tend to first, but any expansion news is heartening because it means (a) Waymo is doing well, business-wise; and (b) arguably more importantly, it means greater agency and autonomy in transit for myself and others like me across the country. The more places Waymo sets up shop, the more places we non-drivers can go—with greater independence, no less.

The Waymo-to-NYC news is joined by Tesla launching its robotaxi service in Austin.