Image: Waymo
Waymo says it is bringing its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to Toronto, its first city in Canada, with a goal of picking up its first riders in 2028. That’s according to Waymo’s blog post and X post on Friday, which say Waymo vehicles will start showing up on Toronto streets in the coming days.
The cars will be driven manually at first while Waymo makes high-definition maps of the city’s street network. After that, it will test with trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel, a phased, safety-first approach it says will let its driver adapt to Toronto’s driving conditions. Waymo hasn’t given a service area or a date for rides without a specialist on board.
Element Fleet Management, a Toronto-based company, will handle fleet management. Waymo says it will invest in hundreds of local roles over time with Element and its other partners, covering fleet maintenance, validation driving, customer service and other operations work. It also points to existing Canadian ties, including investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and manufacturing partner Magna International. “Expanding into Canada marks an important milestone in Waymo’s global journey,” co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said.
Waymo also says data from more than 400 million fully autonomous kilometers shows its driver was involved in 95% fewer crashes with serious injuries or worse than human drivers in the cities where it operates. That’s Waymo’s own figure, not an independent finding.
Toronto adds to a growing list of Waymo cities. We covered its public launch in Miami in January, and a reported funding round in February put its valuation at roughly $110 billion.
Tesla is chasing the same market from another direction. Its two-seat Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, and on Oct. 10 Tesla said more than 300 Cybercabs were serving Austin. Texas records showed 739 vehicles on Tesla’s robotaxi authorization earlier this month, and 319 of them were Cybercabs.
Waymo isn’t the only company eyeing Canada. In March, Uber and Rivian said they plan at least 10,000 R2 robotaxis across the U.S., Canada and Europe by the end of 2031. We haven’t reported a Canadian date for Tesla’s Robotaxi, so Waymo’s 2028 target is the only dated Toronto robotaxi plan we’ve covered. Would you ride a Waymo in Toronto in 2028, or are you holding out for a Cybercab to head north?
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