Waymo Takes Its Self-Driving Cars to Virginia

Self-driving cars are not however, they are allowed to work in Virginia. But they have characters That’s it began shipping its vehicles to the state last week, a Waymo representative told Virginia officials, to map Arlington and Alexandria, in the northern part of the state.

For many autonomous vehicle companies, mapping, or creating sensor-assisted and highly accurate digital maps of the roads and surrounding landscape, is the first step necessary to establish a local robotaxi service. Drivers will be driving map cars for now, Waymo says.

Ethan Teicher, a spokesperson for Waymo, confirmed the move to WIRED and said it is “necessary to plan if the Commonwealth approves autonomous riding.” However, he said, the company “has no plans to work there.”

In a public meeting last week with a working group of the Department of Transportation in Virginia, Waymo’s consultant, Rich Harrington, said that Waymo’s vehicles have arrived in Alexandria and will soon come to Arlington, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Going from a map to an explosive robotaxi mission takes 12 to 18 months and is “a lot of money,” he told officials. Harrington said Waymo notified local officials before the move. (Ellen Kamilakis, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said the agency was unable to respond to WIRED’s request by press time.)

Virginia to Autonomous Driving Work Group is working to understand how policymakers can shape regulations for autonomous vehicles in the state. The State Senate is considering a bill making way for self-propelled vehicles to be licensed to carry paying passengers or goods. However, the lawmaker – state senator Saddam Salim – does not expect self-driving cars to operate there before 2028, he said. local media of Arlington Now.

The mapping effort is a testament to Waymo’s growth and global ambitions — and a test of its power to attract people. The company currently transports paying passengers in 11 US metros and completes approximately 500,000 rides each week. It is working on expanding services to 20 more cities, including London and Tokyo. Twenty-seven US states currently allow driverless taxis on public roads, with five others – including Virginia’s neighbor Washington, DC – allowing driverless testing.

But Waymo has also faced fierce opposition in several blue-chip states and cities, where lawmakers and labor unions are concerned about the risks of self-driving cars. The suspicion has spread to the surrounding areas of Virginia. A bill that would have allowed driverless car companies to transport passengers failed to pass the Maryland state legislature last month. A DC bill that would allow autonomous vehicles on public roads but create special permits and fees for them is being considered by the city council. In 2025, Waymo announced its intention to establish operations in Baltimore and DC, but a year later, the timelines for those operations are still unknown.

Existing Waymo services do not have their own speed bumps. Last week, a the company suspended operations in cities in Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia, which faced hurricanes and floods. Earlier this month, the company recalled programs related to the behavior of its vehicles on flooded roads, and said that its driver service will temporarily avoid operating on flooded roads and at high speeds. The company is developing a “last resort” in this regard, it told federal regulators.

Despite the hurdles, the company is “actively working” to bring jobs to Washington, DC, Teicher said in a written statement, and “continues to build a base of operations in Baltimore.”

Eventually, perhaps, the rules could allow riders to ride without driving throughout the DMV. Meanwhile, the presence of cars, even if driven manually, can have a role for Waymo: to get its cars in front of national policy makers, who are currently thinking about laws that could limit the introduction of rootaxis in many places.