Even though Waymo will be testing some of its fleet here, it doesn't mean you'll be able to hitch a ride with the company anytime soon.
"Like other visitors to Las Vegas, we can't wait to take in the sights, immerse ourselves in the city's distinct driving culture, and meet with locals," a Waymo spokesperson told the Sun in an email. "While most people say, 'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,' we're looking forward to using our learnings from the neon-lit streets and bustling boulevards to help make a more robust and safer driver."
Testing by Waymo comes a few months after Zoox, another autonomous vehicle company, started trial runs of its robotaxis on the Las Vegas Strip in preparation to eventually allow its driverless cars to transport travelers.
Waymo began as Google's 2009 self-driving car project, then was established as an independent autonomous driving technology company under Google's parent, Alphabet, in 2016.
Its commercial ride-hail application, Waymo One, operates in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.
The company trains its vehicle fleets through a process it calls "cross-country testing," where it takes a small group of cars equipped with Waymo Driver — its autonomous driver technology — to cities across the country.
Human drivers control the vehicles manually to help the Waymo Driver technology gain context of its operating area, then the vehicles begin driving autonomously once enough data is gathered.
Richard Kelley, a senior engineer at UNR's Nevada Center for Applied Research, said this is done through high-definition mapping, onboard cameras and sensors and GPS navigation systems.
The specialists behind the wheel relay feedback on the driving experience to Waymo's engineering teams and flag any unique aspects of the area.
While this occurs, the engineering team can evaluate the Waymo Driver's performance using a virtual replica of the new city to see how it generalizes the layout.
Waymo will be testing its cars on the Strip and surrounding roadways, including the I-15 and Paradise Road. These vehicles won't be available for rides to the public but will be actively collecting data to send back to headquarters, the company said.
Data gathered in Las Vegas will be used for improving the company's autonomous technology deployed in other metropolitans but could also open up the opportunity for future Waymo rides here.
"This continuous learning process helps us expand our autonomous driving capabilities as we work toward introducing our technology to more cities," the company said. "We continue to focus on safely and responsibly advancing our autonomous technology through steps like this in various cities around the U.S."
Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted documents revealing it had opened an investigation of crashes involving Waymo vehicles.
The agency, in its probe of Waymo, said it had reports of 17 crashes — with no injuries indicated — and five other recordings of possible traffic law violations.
Las Vegas is one of more than 10 cities, including San Diego and Tokyo, where the company will be conducting tests this year.
Kelley said that because of its temperate weather and tourist areas, Las Vegas makes for a great training ground for driverless vehicles.
The machines will be able to carry out tests without worrying about weather-related problems and can learn from random pedestrian behavior in spots like the Strip or downtown Las Vegas, where there's a concentration of people walking, Kelley said.
In 2011, the Nevada Legislature cleared the way for autonomous vehicle testing and regulation within the state by passing Assembly Bill 511, which allowed the Nevada Department of Transportation to develop rules governing driverless cars.
Some of these rules require a human operator at the wheel of an autonomous vehicle if it's being tested or operated on a highway, and that any crashes involving the vehicle that result in personal injury or property damage estimated to exceed $750 must be reported to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.
The Nevada Advisory Committee on Traffic Safety discussed at its Dec. 16 meeting establishing a working group on autonomous vehicles to research and make suggestions for regulations that eventually will be taken to the Nevada Legislature.
Though Waymo will be making a pit stop in Las Vegas to test its vehicles, Zoox has been charting data for its fleet of robotaxis since June 2023.
Zoox officials noted the Strip was "full of complex driving scenarios, including more than eight lanes with multiple turning lanes, high speeds, heavy pedestrian traffic and large-scale intersections."
Data collected by the robotaxis during the first few months on the Strip will be used to help "train" the fleet of vehicles until Zoox is ready to provide people with driverless rides.
The autonomous vehicle company will soon begin offering rides to employees' families and friends, then move to other riders who will be able to try the service for free, Zoox said in a news release.
"My personal experience has been outstanding to the point where if I have the choice between a robotaxi and an Uber or a Lyft, nine times out of 10, I will take the robotaxi in San Francisco and Phoenix, where they've been pretty widely deployed," Kelley said. "I think that the technology is going to continue to improve. I would be just shocked if riding any robotaxi were not sort of a common, everyday thing in 10 years."
© 2025 the Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nev.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
