Waymo is coming to Madrid, with driverless robotaxis planned for 2027

Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving company, announced on Tuesday, October 20, that it is laying the groundwork for a fully driverless ride-hailing service in Spain, starting with the Madrid region. According to the company's official blog, its electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs will start appearing on local streets “in the coming days,” with the goal of welcoming the first riders in 2027.

Testing comes in phases. First the cars are driven manually to map the streets. Then comes technical validation, with trained local specialists behind the wheel, to adapt the system to the region's traffic. According to Xataka, testing will cover urban areas of Madrid, Alcobendas and Getafe, by day and by night, under the rules of Spain's traffic authority (DGT) for automated vehicle testing.

What still stands in the way

A testing permit is not enough to charge for rides. In Spain, paid passenger transport requires an authorization granted by the regional governments, Xataka notes, and that is exactly where taxis and ride-hailing apps have been fighting for more than a decade. Waymo says it is working with national, regional and local authorities and with local partners, without naming them.

Waymo will not be alone in Madrid either: WeRide, Uber and Avomo have already received the DGT's first national Level 4 permit for autonomous passenger vehicles, with an initial fleet of 20 vehicles and a specialist on board.

Where Waymo already operates

The company says it has completed more than 20 million trips and gives hundreds of thousands of paid rides per week in the United States, with 400 million kilometers driven with no one at the wheel. It says its system was involved in 95% fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers in the cities where it operates; that figure is Waymo's own. In Europe, it is also preparing London and Munich, neither with commercial service yet.