EVwire brief: Waymo has taken its first formal step toward bringing robotaxis to Germany, registering a local company in Munich.
The entity, Waymo Germany GmbH, entered Munich's commercial register on June 15, with its business address listed at Google's Munich office. Per the filing, first reported by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, it will “offer ride-hailing services with autonomous vehicles and provide services that support the commercial offering of such services by third parties.”
It would not be surprising if Waymo’s Ojai, which is equipped with the company’s latest self-driving hardware, is also deployed to Europe
No launch date has been announced, and the paperwork alone does not mean rides are close. A Waymo spokesperson said the company is setting the stage for global operations, though no timeline was shared for Germany.
“Waymo has global ambitions, with plans already underway to bring our fully autonomous ride-hailing service to London and Tokyo. We are engaging with officials around the world to explain our technology and lay the groundwork for global operations.”
Waymo usually enters a new market by deploying a small fleet of human-supervised cars to map streets and train its self-driving system, a process that can stretch from months to years, before opening rides to employees and then the public.
Waymo currently stands as the leader in the US robotaxi market
Context:
Germany has turned into a busy proving ground for autonomous players, from UK startup Wayve to China's Baidu and Beijing Momenta. Munich is getting especially crowded: earlier this month Uber paired with Israeli AI firm Autobrains to target a robotaxi pilot in the city.
Waymo leads the US robotaxi market with more than 500,000 autonomous trips a week across 11 cities, and has said it is eyeing 21 more at home and abroad.
Source: Bloomberg
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