Uber and Google's self-driving company Waymo officially launched a self-driving taxi hailing service in Atlanta on June 24, which has been offering the service in Austin, Texas since March.

The two companies first announced plans to launch the service in Atlanta in September 2024, offering ride-hailing services in Waymo self-driving cars on the Uber app within 65 square miles (168 square kilometers) of Atlanta.

As Waymo expands testing, Tesla

The race to deploy self-driving taxis is accelerating as Waymo begins limited trials of its self-driving taxi service in Austin on Sunday, a sign of growing momentum for autonomous vehicles.

There are currently 100 Waymo cars on the Uber platform in Austin, and dozens more will be launched in Atlanta. Uber said last year that it would manage and dispatch a fleet of fully autonomous, all-electric Jaguar I-PACE cars that "will grow to hundreds" over time.

When passengers ride in a Waymo self-driving car, they will pay the same fare as an UberX, Uber Comfort or Uber Comfort Electric, but they will not be prompted to tip.

Waymo is offering fully autonomous service to employees on highways in California and Arizona, but it is not yet available to the public. Service in Atlanta is limited to surface streets.

Last week, Waymo said its vehicles will return to self-driving testing in New York City next month. Waymo has applied for a self-driving permit from the New York City Department of Transportation, with a trained expert driving in Manhattan.

Waymo said in March that it plans to launch a self-driving taxi ride-hailing service in Washington, D.C. next year.

Waymo currently has more than 1,500 vehicles and makes more than 250,000 trips per week in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin.