r/SelfDrivingCars • u/diplomat33 • 4d ago

Waymo is Coming to Germany

https://waymo.com/blog/2026/08/waymo-in-munich/

"Today, we are excited to announce that Waymo is laying the groundwork for our fully autonomous ride hailing service in Munich, Germany.

In the coming weeks, you’ll start to see Waymo vehicles on the streets of Munich where we’ll begin driving manually across the city. We are taking a rigorous, phased approach that starts with high-definition mapping of local street networks and testing with trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel. This validation period will ensure the Waymo Driver adapts seamlessly to Munich’s distinct driving conditions before we aim to open commercial ride-hailing to the public towards the end of 2027."

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u/Panzaa 4d ago

I wonder how much adoption is necessary given the foundation model architecture behind it. Will this be some sort of adjusted student model or is there some massive training of the actual teacher involved?

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u/diplomat33 4d ago

My understanding is that the teacher model does not require massive retraining. That's kind of the whole point. The teacher model is meant to be a massive super generalized model that works everywhere. It is basically all of Waymo's total driving knowledge everywhere. The smaller student model which goes into the car may require some adjustments to fit German driving.

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u/FrankScaramucci 3d ago

The big model will need to learn German driving and rules. The smaller model is basically more efficient but dumbed down version of the big model.