Waymo Launches Fully Driverless Taxi Service in Nashville

On February 9, Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Alphabet, officially launched fully driverless ride-hailing services in Nashville, Tennessee. The company had conducted months of testing in the city and plans to roll out its ride-hailing service in partnership with Lyft later this year. Initially, users can hail rides through Waymo’s dedicated app, with integration into the Lyft platform to follow. Flexdrive, a subsidiary of Lyft, will handle vehicle maintenance, charging, and depot operations. Nashville has emerged as an ideal launch city due to its 15% population growth in recent years and Tennessee’s permissive regulatory environment for autonomous vehicles—which requires no special state-level permits. Waymo is applying its well-established expansion playbook: beginning with safety drivers during testing and transitioning to fully driverless operations, typically introducing paid services within six months. Currently, Waymo operates more than 2,500 autonomous vehicles across five U.S. locations and has just closed a $16 billion funding round, valuing the company at $126 billion.