Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have just arrived in Charlotte.
Yesterday, at least a dozen Waymo driverless Jaguars were spotted in a parking lot next to the Panthers stadium. User WarriusBirde uploaded a shot of the vehicles to Reddit:
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The company said the vehicles are here in the Queen City to begin an extensive mapping and testing of all of our roads. Waymo policy requires that all roads be driven on at least 3 times before full driverless status can be opened up to the public in any particular city.
Residents have spotted a row of Waymo’s white, sensor-packed electric Jaguars parked near the Panthers’ practice fields in Uptown.
The vehicles appear staged in a gravel lot off McNinch Street, where at least a dozen cars have been lined up. The presence suggests Waymo is in an early “mapping and validation” phase, a step the company typically completes before opening rides to the public.
Charlotte’s Waymo arrival comes the same week as the company announced the launching of their service in four new markets: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando = bringing their active dispatch footprint to 10 major U.S. metro areas.
Waymo says its robotaxis already deliver more than 400,000 trips each week. Those rides currently operate in Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin. The company now has a goal of surpassing 1 million weekly paid trips by the end of 2026.
To fuel their rapid growth, Waymo recently raised $16 billion at a $126 billion valuation in mostly private equity.
For Charlotte, the immediate impact is simple: don’t expect public robotaxi rides yet. The sightings point to early groundwork, not an open service.
Still, the fleet presence raises the stakes for what comes next. If Waymo progresses beyond mapping, Charlotte could eventually join a short list of U.S. cities with truly driverless ride-hailing.
