Waymo begins Madrid preparations, targeting its first riders in 2027

Waymo is preparing to bring fully autonomous ride-hailing to Spain, starting in the Region of Madrid, with first riders targeted for 2027. Its electric cars are expected on local streets within days. But the immediate step is human-driven preparation, followed by supervised technical validation—not the opening of a driverless passenger service.

A driverless goal, a human-driven beginning

The October 20 announcement sets out a staged approach. Waymo says electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will begin appearing across the region in the coming days. The company will start with manual driving before moving into technical validation, with locally trained autonomous specialists remaining behind the wheel.

That validation has a specific purpose: adapting the Waymo Driver, its autonomous-driving system, to Madrid’s traffic patterns and road conditions.

Waymo describes a system that combines cameras, radar and lidar sensors to maintain a view around the vehicle, reaching up to 300 metres. It says the system is trained to anticipate other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists.

Preparing more than the cars

The announcement also describes work beyond vehicle testing. Waymo says it is building a local operating presence and working toward alignment with Spanish national and regional regulatory frameworks and community needs. It identifies several strands of preparation alongside the planned driving programme:

• Engagement with national, regional and local authorities.
• Familiarising emergency services with its technology before future passenger service.
• Engagement with local partners and investment in the operations needed to support rides.

U.S. safety results, not Madrid results

Waymo is making its safety case with experience from elsewhere. The company says it has completed more than 20 million trips and serves hundreds of thousands of commercial rides each week. It presents that operating history as the foundation for bringing its autonomous-driving technology to Spain.

Its headline safety claim is 95% fewer crashes involving serious injury or worse than human drivers travelling the same distance in its operating U.S. cities. Waymo bases that claim on more than 400 million fully autonomous kilometres. The comparison concerns U.S. operations; it is not a measurement of performance in Madrid.

The announcement includes supportive comments from Spanish road-safety organisations. FESVIAL president Ignacio Lijarcio described autonomous driving as an opportunity to prevent mistakes and anticipate risks. AESLEME director Mar Cogollos emphasised removing risks such as distraction, fatigue and alcohol use.