*Waymo will deploy a mixed fleet of Jaguar I-PACE and Zeekr RT vehicles in Minneapolis, and a fleet of I-PACE vehicles in Tampa. | Source: Waymo

While people are arguing over who parks better, them or their neighbor, Waymo is quietly and systematically continuing to conquer the roads of American cities. Her latest acquisition is three new urban training grounds for her robotaxis: Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans . Machines with distinctive rotating leaders on their roofs will appear on their streets in the coming days, starting the manual testing phase. This is not just another step, but part of a grand plan that aims to deploy a commercial service in more than 20 cities around the world.

Capture Strategy: Why does it work?

Waymo is no longer storming every city as a separate fortress. The company announces the creation of a "generalizable Driver", a universal artificial intelligence system that can be quickly adapted to new conditions. The secret to rapid expansion lies in powerful feedback.

Urban experience as fuel for AI. Each new city provides a unique set of data, from the chaotic one-way streets of New Orleans' French Quarter to the snowy roads of Minneapolis. This data gets into the "flywheel of continuous improvement": real trips and advanced simulations help refine algorithms, which are then massively updated throughout the fleet.

Security is like a trump card. Waymo backs up its expansion with impressive, albeit internal, statistics. The company claims that its "Driver" causes 11 times fewer serious accidents with injuries compared to a human. Other reports speak of 100 million autonomous miles and over 10 million paid rides.

Partnerships for scale. Waymo understands that you can't embrace the vast alone. In different cities, it relies on partners: in Austin and Atlanta, orders go through the Uber app, in Miami and Phoenix, the Moove company will become the operator of the fleet, and in Dallas, the Avis Budget Group will handle this. This allows you to focus on the main thing — technology.

New challenges: snow, carnivals and narrow streets

Each new city poses a unique challenge to robomobiles. Minneapolis, with its harsh winters, will be a test for sensors and algorithms in conditions of snowfall and ice. Waymo has been preparing for this by testing the technology in Michigan and upstate New York. New Orleans will welcome drones with a maze of narrow one-way streets and an abundance of pedestrians, especially in the famous French Quarter. This will require AI to be very precise and predict the unpredictable.

The big map of the future: where next?

The three new cities are just a small part of Waymo's ambitious roadmap. If everything goes according to plan, 2026 will be a time of real "explosive growth." The waiting list includes:

Detroit, Las Vegas and San Diego — the launch is scheduled for 2026.

Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, Seattle and Washington are also planned for 2026.

International expansion. Waymo is not limited to the States. The company is already testing cars in Tokyo and is preparing to launch in London in 2026.

The rapid increase in the fleet of autonomous vehicles naturally raises the question of effective management of this growing "digital staff." When thousands of robotaxis start performing hundreds of thousands of trips every day, advanced tools will be needed to distribute tasks, track the productivity and technical condition of each "employee". In this context, the approaches offered by the world's first ecosystem for hiring robots are becoming interesting. jobtorob.com . Its logic, based on the management of digital profiles and the unique "skills" of autonomous systems, can potentially be scaled to coordinate the work of entire fleets, ensuring their smooth interaction and maximum efficiency within a single urban mobile ecosystem.

What's the bottom line?

Waymo is no longer just a technology startup. It is a major player on the transport map, which has moved from point experiments to systematic expansion. Their approach, combining powerful technologies, pragmatic partnerships, and active dialogue with communities, demonstrates that the unmanned future is not coming in spurts, but gradually, city by city. And while residents of Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans will get used to the sight of self-driving Jaguar I-Pace on their streets, Waymo is already making a list of the next targets.