The Zhitong Finance App learned that Waymo, an autonomous driving company under Alphabet (GOOGL.US), announced that it will pave the way for a fully unmanned online ride-hailing service in the Madrid region of Spain. The goal is to welcome the first batch of passengers in 2027. This is Waymo's first entry into Spain.
In the next few days, Waymo's all-electric Jaguar I-PACE fleet will be on the streets of the Madrid region, with trained local autonomous driving specialists in the driver's seat. The company says it is taking a “systematic, phased, and safety-first” path: starting with manual driving, then transitioning to having locally trained safety personnel perform technical verification in the vehicle to ensure that Waymo Driver can adapt to the unique traffic flow and road conditions of the region. The length of this verification period directly determines when commercial passenger carrying is initiated.
On the regulatory side, Waymo will operate under the Spanish General Transport Authority (DGT)'s autonomous vehicle testing framework, and is in contact with national, regional and local governments. At the same time, it familiarizes emergency services with its technology, and is also engaging with local partners and investing in local operating capabilities.
European map: London this year, Tokyo and Munich 2027, Toronto 2028
Madrid is the latest stop on Waymo's European route map. According to the company's caliber, its goal is to launch in London within this year, enter Munich and Tokyo in 2027, and enter Toronto in 2028 — Tokyo's partners are Nippon Transportation and Go, which are still awaiting regulatory approval; Toronto is partnering with Element Fleet Management. In addition, Waymo has officially registered self-driving online car-hailing services in Paris and Amsterdam, but neither city has announced a schedule.
In London, Waymo's fleet operations are being promoted by partner Moove. The company says it is communicating with central and local authorities in the UK all permits required for commercial online car-hailing, and is planning to set up several autonomous vehicle service centers in the region. As designed by the British side, Waymo will operate under its proposed pilot framework.
What supports this round of expansion is the scale that the mainland of the United States has saved. According to company data, the Waymo fleet has operated in more than 15 cities in the US, completed more than 500,000 paid trips every week, and the cumulative number of paid orders has exceeded 20 million.
In terms of safety data, the company says accidents involving serious injury and above are 95% lower than human drivers over 400 million kilometers (249 million miles) of fully autonomous driving range.
“Madrid is an incredible city of innovation and an integral part of our growing global footprint, and we can't wait to serve the people of Madrid.” Waymo Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said.
Ignacio Lijarcio, president of the Spanish Road Safety Foundation (FESVIAL), said: “Technology can only achieve its true purpose when it serves people. At FESVIAL, we believe autonomous driving is a major opportunity for innovation to become an ally of human ability and road safety, helping to avoid mistakes, anticipate risks, and save lives.” He added that the entry of the new autonomous travel plan into Spain should enable the local community to move “with rigor and confidence” to a safer, more accessible, and more human-centered travel model.
Mar Cogollos, head of the Spanish Association for Spinal Cord Injury Research (AESLEME), gave an endorsement from the perspective of the causes of accidents: over 90% of traffic accidents are due to human error, and autonomous driving technology can eliminate major human risks such as distraction, fatigue, drunk driving, drug driving, speeding, and failure to maintain a safe distance. “For AESLEME, the top priority is to enable safe travel — no one is killed or seriously injured in an avoidable road accident.”
This is the significance of this Madrid stop: Waymo's technical verification over the years has mainly been completed in a relatively limited number of markets in the US; the next stage's proposition is to prove that this platform can adapt to extremely different traffic environments, regulatory systems, and consumer expectations.
But Waymo wasn't the first to enter Madrid
It's worth noting that Waymo isn't the first player to knock on Madrid's doors. DGT issued Spain's first batch of national autonomous vehicle testing permits to WeRide and Uber (UBER.US) last month, and their commercial services are expected to launch in Madrid before the end of this year — which means rivals have a first-mover window for about a year before Waymo can carry passengers in 2027.
The capital and fleet side are also speeding up at the same time. According to reports, Waymo plans to use the $5 billion raised earlier this month to expand the vehicle fleet from the current 4,000 vehicles to 8,000 vehicles by the end of the year and 20,000 vehicles by the end of next year; the funds are loans from institutions such as PIMCO, Blackstone, and Sixth Street. Earlier this year, Waymo closed a $16 billion equity round, valued at $126 billion.
From an investment perspective, the core of this round of internationalization promotion is verifying whether Waymo's technology stack can be replicated across markets. According to GuruFocus's comments, European cities have denser road networks, greater differences in traffic behavior, and stricter regulatory environments than most US markets. If Madrid can get through, it can reinforce the argument that “Waymo is gradually becoming a global autonomous driving platform rather than an online car-hailing experiment in the US.”
But the costs are rising at the same time: each new city brings in more data and potential revenue, while compounding operational complexity. There are five clues to follow — the progress of testing in Madrid, the pace of regulatory approvals, landing dates in London and Munich, fleet economics, and whether Waymo can expand without significantly increasing costs.