Waymo is bringing its robotaxis to Toronto, with first rides planned for 2028

The short version: Toronto is officially on Waymo's map. The company says it is "laying the groundwork" for a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the city, investing in local facilities and jobs.

TechCrunch reports that Waymo received approval to take part in Ontario's automated vehicle pilot program. That is the provincial program that allows self-driving cars to be tested on public roads.

Waymo's co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana called it a milestone.

"Expanding into Canada marks an important milestone in Waymo's global journey," Mawakana said in the announcement.

The post was published in both English and French, a small detail that tells you Waymo is thinking about Canada as a whole, not only one city.

No. If you live in Toronto, you will start seeing Waymo cars in the coming days, but a person will be driving them. Waymo is starting by driving manually to build high-definition maps of local streets.

TechCrunch describes the playbook Waymo uses in every new city:

• Step 1, mapping: people drive the cars to record the streets in detail.
• Step 2, testing: the self-driving system drives, with a trained safety operator in the driver's seat.
• Step 3, driverless testing: the operators come out of the car.
• Step 4, public rides: riders are invited to book trips in the app.

CNET reports that public rides in the Toronto area are planned for 2028. Waymo will start with a limited number of its Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs and add more over time.

Testing will happen in select neighborhoods first, according to CNET:

• Liberty Village
• St. Lawrence Market
• Yorkdale

In real life If you're walking through Liberty Village this fall and spot a white SUV with a spinning dome on the roof, there is a human inside, driving. It's not a robotaxi yet. It's more like a very thorough student taking notes on every lane.

Weather. TechCrunch notes that Toronto is the northernmost and possibly the most wintry city Waymo has tried to operate in so far. Most of its current cities are known for sunshine.

Snow covers lane markings. Slush sprays on sensors. Ice changes how long a car needs to stop. A self-driving system has to handle all of that, and it has to handle it every winter.

CNET reports that Waymo built its sixth-generation Waymo Driver, the hardware and software that drive the car, to navigate diverse environments, including the extreme winter weather Toronto gets.

Think of it like a pro surfer moving from Hawaii to a lake that freezes. The skills carry over, but the first season is going to be educational.

Waymo leans on its safety record here. It says its cars have driven over 400 million fully autonomous kilometres, and that in the cities where it operates, the Waymo Driver was involved in 95% fewer crashes with serious injury or worse than human drivers. That is Waymo's own analysis of its data.

Not Waymo alone. To serve Toronto, Waymo is partnering with Element Fleet Management, a fleet management company headquartered in Toronto. Element will provide end-to-end fleet management services.

TechCrunch reports this is part of a bigger pattern. As Waymo speeds up its expansion, it has started working with a third-party company to manage the fleet in each new city.

Waymo says that together with Element and its other partners, it will invest in hundreds of roles over time. The jobs it lists:

• Fleet maintenance: keeping the cars charged, clean and repaired.
• Validation driving: the people behind the wheel during mapping and testing.
• Customer service: helping riders.
• Operations: the work that keeps a service running day to day.

Element's CEO, Laura Dottori-Attanasio, said that "as a Canadian company, we are proud to be expanding our partnership with Waymo."

Waymo also points to Canadian ties it already has. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is a long-term investor in Waymo, and Magna International is its manufacturing partner.

Waymo has been talking to Toronto officials for a while. In April, CP24 reported that Waymo had told Mayor Olivia Chow's office it planned to apply for the provincial pilot.

At the time, a spokesperson for the mayor said her priority is protecting jobs, and that she "will not support Waymo if it costs jobs, drives down wages for other workers, or contributed to precarious work in our city."

The catch: the city isn't the one that decides. MobileSyrup, citing the Toronto Star, reported that the mayor's office said regulating driverless cars is up to the province, not the city. The Ontario pilot started in 2016 and runs until 2027, according to that report.

The pilot has rules. CP24 reports that under it, collisions must be reported within 10 days, and companies need enough insurance to operate in Ontario.

Toronto has seen self-driving pilots before:

• 2021: a self-driving shuttle service launched and was cancelled the same year after a collision and the supplier's shutdown, CP24 reports.
• 2025: Magna was accepted into the Ontario pilot. The city opposed it, and the test ended a few months later.

Local experts see both sides. Steven Waslander, a professor at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies, told CTV News Toronto that the big advantage of self-driving cars is that they see in every direction all the time and never get tired.

Alex Ferworn, a computer science professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, raised a different question in the same report: what do the cars do when nobody is inside? "Do they just circle?" he asked, pointing to the traffic the city already has.

Waymo is also working with accessibility groups in Toronto, including BALANCE for Blind Adults, CNIB, Community Living Toronto, Connected Canadians and Epilepsy Ontario.

Very fast. TechCrunch puts it in numbers:

• Two years ago: Waymo ran commercial service in only 3 markets, and its cars weren't driving on freeways.
• March 2025: the expansion push began with Austin, followed later by Atlanta.
• Today: robotaxi service in 15 US cities, plus testing in London and Tokyo.

CNET lists Miami, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area among the current cities, with Denver, San Diego, Las Vegas and Tampa added earlier this year. Rules for robotaxis are still being written in many places, too: see our story on California's bill about robotaxis and first responders.

Toronto is the first time Waymo has taken its service to a city outside the US with a plan to carry the public, and it is starting with the hardest weather it has faced.

• In Toronto: expect to see Waymo cars soon, with a person driving. Rides for the public are planned for 2028.
• Want in early? Waymo's sign-up page at waymo.com/waymo-in-canada lets you get updates and ask to be among the first riders.
• Elsewhere in Canada: nothing changes yet. Toronto is the only Canadian city Waymo has announced.
• Anywhere it snows: Toronto is where Waymo will show whether a robotaxi can handle real winter. That matters for every snowy city on its list.