Millions of Trips, “Waymo” Empty Miles: California’s First Thousand Days of Commercial Robotaxi Service

2026/05/18 by Awad Abdelhalim · 2 voices
Engineering · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Transportation and Mobility Innovations #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Human-Automation Interaction and Safety

paper · pdf · doi:10.32866/001c.161870

Abstract

Autonomous rideshare services, generally referred to as robotaxis, have been scaling up rapidly in the United States. However, there is very little visibility into the operations of these services and their impact on urban congestion, particularly when vehicles are cruising without passengers onboard. We analyzed the composition of more than 86 million total vehicle miles traveled over approximately 14 million Waymo robotaxi trips, using data reported to the California Public Utilities Commission from August 2023 through December 2025. We found that only about 54% of all miles traveled by Waymos in California are driven with a passenger onboard.

Discussions

• New research examines Waymo's California robotaxi trips btw Aug 2023 and Dec 2025. Conclusion: 46% of miles driven involved no one inside the car. That's 40 million miles of deadheading, with Waymo [bsky, 1166 points, 65 comments]
• Waymos in California carry passengers for only 54 percent of the time, according to researchers. This is an improvement since the service launched, but it still generates more than 2 million empty mil [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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