Waymo plans autonomous ride-hailing service in Madrid in 2027
Waymo says Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will begin driving through Madrid with trained specialists before its planned autonomous service starts.
Waymo plans to launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the Madrid region of Spain in 2027, Reuters reported on October 20. It would be the Alphabet-owned company’s first deployment in Spain. Waymo has not given a specific launch date, and the planned service has not begun.
Waymo posted a Madrid announcement on its official updates page on October 20. The proposed launch would bring its driverless ride service to a market where Spain’s traffic agency has already begun issuing national permits for autonomous vehicle testing.
Waymo’s Madrid vehicles will start with specialists at the wheel
Electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will begin appearing on Madrid streets in the coming days, Waymo said in a statement cited by Reuters. Trained specialists will sit behind the wheel during this preparation stage, before autonomous operations begin. For people who see the vehicles in Madrid soon, their presence will therefore precede the ride-hailing service planned for 2027.
Waymo said it would operate under the autonomous vehicle testing framework of Spain’s traffic agency, the DGT. Reuters did not specify when the company might receive authorization for commercial operations. The distinction matters because testing vehicles on public streets and carrying paying passengers without a driver are separate stages of the plan.
Madrid’s autonomous vehicle testing permits
The DGT issued its first national autonomous vehicle testing permits to WeRide and Uber in September, Reuters reported. Commercial services from those operators were expected to launch in Madrid by the end of 2026. Waymo’s proposed 2027 service would enter a city where other companies are also preparing driverless ride-hailing operations.
Madrid is part of a wider set of planned launches. Reuters reported that Waymo aims to launch in London in 2026, in Tokyo in 2027 with Nihon Kotsu and Go subject to regulatory approval, and in Toronto in 2028 with Element Fleet Management. Those plans have separate timetables from the Madrid proposal.
Waymo’s reported operating scale and safety figures
Waymo said its fleet already operates in more than 15 US cities, completes more than 500,000 paid rides a week and has surpassed 20 million cumulative paid rides. These are company-reported figures cited by Reuters; they describe Waymo’s existing operations, rather than a forecast of demand in Madrid.
The company also said its safety data, compiled over more than 400 million kilometres of autonomous driving, showed 95% fewer crashes involving serious injury or worse compared with human drivers. Reuters attributed that comparison to Waymo. It is a claim about the company’s recorded driving data, not a measurement of how a future Madrid service will perform.
Read in depth: Business
France summons Vinted and other marketplaces over suspected looted goods listings
French ministers called online marketplaces to a meeting after suspected listings appeared following weekend looting. Vinted says it has removed potentially linked items and...
Prosecutors allege Saudi support for former OpenAI employee accused of planting recorder
A new detention filing cites Abdulrahman Alfozan’s contacts with a Saudi royal family member and travel arrangements for his family. His lawyer disputes that he is a flight risk.
Sources and context
- Waymo to launch autonomous ride-hailing in Madrid next yearChannel NewsAsia (Reuters)
- ¡Llegamos a Madrid! Waymo is coming to SpainWaymo
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.