Waymo moves closer to rolling out its self-driving cars in Philly

Waymo is moving forward with plans to roll out service in Philadelphia after road-testing its robotaxis in the city over the summer.

Philly is one of 20 new cities — including Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Washington — where Waymo plans to expand in the coming years. The company did not provide a timeline for its autonomous vehicles to debut in Philly. When they first become available, they will have drivers behind the wheel.

"In each city that we operate in we have a period during which we drive autonomously with specialists behind the wheel," Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher said. "We use that period to validate our performance while we scale up our operations."

Waymo has received PennDOT's permission to begin operating autonomously with drivers in their cars, Teicher said. The company's