Waymo is headed to Munich, Germany

Today, Waymo has announced that it is now "laying the groundwork" for its fully autonomous driverless ride-hailing service in Munich, Germany, "one of the world's premier hubs for automotive engineering and urban mobility".

"In the coming weeks", Waymo cars will appear on the streets of Munich. Waymo is taking a "rigorous, phased approach" to its rollout, that starts with manual driving and high-definition mapping of local street networks, as well as testing with "trained autonomous specialists" behind the wheel.

The validation period will ensure that Waymo Driver will adapt seamlessly to Munich’s driving conditions. The commercial ride-hailing operation will open "towards the end of 2027", the company says.

If you're interested in Waymo's deployment in Munich, you can sign up for updates at this page and follow the journey. The company says its vehicles get into 16x fewer serious injury crashes compared to human drivers, 14x fewer pedestrian crashes with injury, and 6x fewer cyclist crashes with injury.