Waymo says it is laying the groundwork for its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Spain, beginning with the Region of Madrid. It aims to welcome its first riders in 2027.
Its electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will appear on the region’s streets in the coming days. Waymo says it will start with manual driving, then move to technical validation with local, trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel, so its system can adapt to local traffic patterns and road conditions.
The company says it is working with national, regional and local authorities, familiarising emergency services with its technology and engaging with local partners, which it has not named. Spain’s road safety foundation FESVIAL and the spinal cord injury association AESLEME both backed the move in the announcement.
Waymo says it has completed more than 20 million trips and serves hundreds of thousands of paid rides each week. It also repeats its safety claim of 95% fewer crashes involving serious injury or worse than human drivers, across more than 400 million fully autonomous kilometres in the cities where it operates. These are Waymo’s own figures.
Madrid comes a week after Waymo named Toronto as its first Canadian city, with riders there targeted for 2028.
Riders in Madrid are still at least a year away, but the testing that decides whether the service launches starts now.
Read the announcement: ¡Llegamos a Madrid! Waymo is coming to Spain