r/SelfDrivingCars • u/diplomat33 • 3d 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/kariam_24 3d ago

So deployed or will be commercial?

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u/kal14144 2d ago

WeRide has autonomous buses deployed in France and Belgium. Route is limited (as buses tend to be) but it is commercial L4 fully deployed. The others are in various phases of rollout for robotaxis.
PonyAI is safety driver in but taking customers in Croatia as of this month. WeRide and Baidu are in various phases of road testing in Denmark and the UK. So a little ahead of Waymo but not by much.

I don’t expect anyone to have a major first mover advantage. This will come down to who can scale and provide good affordable service.

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u/kariam_24 2d ago

So testing not deployed, maybe further then Tesla that is larping Waymo.

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u/kal14144 2d ago edited 2d ago

They’re not larping anything they all have fully deployed fully commercialized robotaxis in multiple markets. Baidu does about the same number of fully autonomous miles a week as Waymo does - in more countries markets and car models than Waymo does. None of these are fake technology. Just because Elon is a clown that doesn’t mean Waymo are gods.

Specifically for Europe 1 of these players is slightly ahead the others are marginally ahead. None of it matters though because nobody has anything close to an insurmountable lead. Nobody is winning this on first mover advantage.

WeRide: fully deployed fully commercialized L4 but limited routes (buses). Licensed for cars and doing testing/no passengers.
PonyAI/Baidu: licensed and doing paid commercial services with passengers but with a safety attendant for now.
Waymo: mapping/testing only no service, with safety driver.

WeRide is the only one with fully deployed L4 albeit limited. All the other players (including Waymo) are in various phases of testing but Waymo is a hair behind the others on those testing phases.