Waymo announced on August 28, 2026, that Munich will become its third international city for autonomous ride-hailing, following earlier expansions to London and Tokyo, according to reporting from Euronews. The company said it is laying the operational and regulatory groundwork for a driverless service in the German city but has not set a specific public launch date.
Waymo pointed to safety data from its US operations to make the case for expansion, citing internal analysis suggesting its autonomous vehicles are involved in significantly fewer serious-injury and fatal crashes per mile than human-driven taxis in the same markets. The company noted that Europe records roughly 20,000 road fatalities annually, with driver error cited as a factor in a majority of crashes, as part of its rationale for prioritizing European expansion.
Part of a Broader European Push for Autonomous Driving
The Munich announcement comes as European regulators show growing openness to autonomous and driver-assistance systems more broadly; a recent Dutch approval of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Supervised system has been followed by similar regulatory movement in Denmark, Lithuania, and Estonia. Waymo already operates fully driverless commercial service across ten US cities, where the company has said it now completes more than half a million paid trips per week.
Munich’s position as a major automotive-engineering hub, home to BMW and a dense supplier base, is likely to shape how quickly Waymo can secure local regulatory approval and testing partnerships. The company has not disclosed which German authorities it is engaging with or a target timeline for public rides to begin.
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