Waymo’s self-driving Jaguars are no longer confined to city streets. The Alphabet-owned company is pushing the boundaries of AI-driven highway autonomy, with major milestones in airport mapping, global testing, and safety innovations. Here’s how Waymo plans to redefine transportation—and the challenges it must overcome.
1. Highway Autonomy Breakthrough: From Streets to Freeways
In March 2025, Waymo confirmed its autonomous vehicles are navigating highways in Los Angeles at 65+ mph. This leap follows years of urban testing in cities like San Francisco, where Waymo robotaxis complete over 500,000 weekly rides. Highways pose unique challenges: no traffic lights, erratic lane changes, and split-second decisions. Waymo’s solution combines 29 cameras, 5 LiDAR units, and AI prediction models like MotionLM to mimic human-like anticipation.
SFO Airport Mapping: A Critical Step
Waymo secured permits in March 2025 to map San Francisco International Airport (SFO) roadways using human-driven vehicles. This data will train future autonomous airport drop-offs, though commercial operations await regulatory approval. Mayor Daniel Lurie called it “San Francisco’s next transit layer.”
2. Global Testing Frenzy: Tokyo to Texas
Waymo isn’t limiting its ambitions to the U.S. In April 2025, it deployed 25 test vehicles to Tokyo—its first international trial—partnering with local taxi firm Nihon Kotsu. These Jaguar I-PACE cars adapt to left-hand driving and dense urban highways. Meanwhile, in Austin, Texas, Waymo-Uber partnership rides now include stretches of I-35, though full autonomy remains restricted to pre-mapped zones.
AI Training at Scale
Waymo’s EMMA model (End-to-End Multimodal Autonomy) processes petabytes of simulated highway scenarios—virtual pileups, tire blowouts, aggressive truckers—using NVIDIA GPUs. “Every 1,000 virtual miles save 100 real-world test drives,” said Drago Anguelov, Waymo’s VP of Research.
Safety First: Redundancy and Data
Waymo’s vehicles reduce injury-causing crashes by 88% vs. human drivers. Highway systems include dual steering controls and 3D Gaussian Splatting for real-time hazard detection. Critics, however, urge stricter federal oversight for high-speed autonomy.
3. Challenges: Regulations, Rivals, and Public Trust
Regulatory hurdles loom. The California DMV requires human safety drivers during highway testing, while U.S.-China trade tensions threaten LiDAR supply chains. Competitors like Tesla (FSD v12.5 handles highway exits) and Baidu Apollo (planning a 2026 LA launch) add pressure.
4. What’s Next? Scaling to 50 Cities by 2026
Waymo aims to launch highway-capable robotaxis for consumers by 2026, targeting 10 new test cities including San Diego and Las Vegas. CEO Tekedra Mawakana calls highways “the final frontier” in the race to dominate the $10 trillion autonomous mobility market.
TL;DR: Waymo’s AI-driven highway autonomy is accelerating with SFO mapping, global testing, and safety innovations. Challenges? Regulations and rivals—but with 500K+ weekly rides, the road ahead looks wide open.
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