Waymo is expanding driverless rides to four more US cities today, including its first push into snow country

[Grover26]

Alphabet's robotaxi division announced today that it will begin fully autonomous rides in San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa and Denver, initially limited to Waymo's own employees before opening to the wider public on a timeline the company has not specified. The expansion pushes Waymo's total footprint past ten US cities where the service already operates

Denver is the genuinely new territory here. Waymo is bringing its sixth generation driving system, including a vehicle called the Ojai, specifically engineered with snowier road conditions in mind, marking the company's first serious push into a cold weather climate after building its reputation almost entirely in warm, dry cities. That is a real technical test rather than just another market tick box

The rollout comes with some recent bumps worth being honest about. Several Waymo vehicles drove into flooded roads during extreme weather events, and over the Fourth of July weekend a cluster of cars in San Francisco got stuck in gridlock for so long their batteries died, with one reportedly driving into fireworks. None of that has slowed the expansion pace, and the company is still targeting a million autonomous rides a week by year end, alongside its first international market launch in London later this year

The competitive backdrop is heating up too, Zoox is planning to open its own service to public riders in Austin and Miami by year end, and Tesla has been extending its own robotaxi offering into more Texas markets and Miami, so Waymo's aggressive city count growth looks partly like a company trying to cement a lead before the field gets genuinely crowded

So the questions worth asking. Does pushing into snow and flood prone conditions this fast make sense given the recent incidents, or is Waymo racing on city count at the expense of getting the harder weather cases fully solved first, and now that robotaxis are expanding into more ordinary mid sized cities rather than just tech hub test beds, does that change how you personally feel about riding in one?

Waymo to start driverless rides in 4 more U.S. markets as expansion accelerateswww.cnbc.com