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Waymo robotaxis drive using the Waymo Driver, an integrated system of sensors, onboard computing, software, detailed maps, and vehicle controls. The system senses the road, interprets what is happening, predicts what other road users might do, and plans and executes a driving path. Waymo says human Remote Assistance agents can provide extra context in some unusual or challenging situations; its published description does not say those agents routinely steer or drive the cars.

How does the Waymo Driver work?

Waymo describes its driving process as “Sense, Solve, Go.” The phrase is the company’s explanation of its own system, not a general industry standard. In practice, the stages depend on one another: sensor observations are interpreted alongside maps, software chooses a trajectory, and vehicle systems carry it out.

Sense: gather evidence about the road

Waymo says its hardware combines lidar, cameras, radar, and an AI compute platform to provide a 360-degree view around the vehicle. Each sensor contributes different information; none should be treated as a perfect or interchangeable view of the road.

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  • Lidar sends laser pulses and measures their reflections to build a three-dimensional view and estimate distance. Waymo says its lidar can measure objects around the vehicle in 360 degrees and at distances of up to 300 meters.
  • Cameras provide visual information used to recognize details such as traffic lights, signs, pedestrians, and construction scenes.
  • Radar contributes information about objects’ distance, speed, and direction. Waymo describes it as useful in rain, fog, and snow, but that is not a claim that sensors work perfectly in every condition.

Waymo’s Help article, “How our cars drive,” describes these sensor roles. The precise sensor suite depends on the vehicle generation.

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Solve: interpret, predict, and plan

Waymo says it creates detailed custom maps of a new area, including information such as lane markers, signs, curbs, and crosswalks. While driving, the system combines those maps with live sensor observations and AI to estimate the vehicle’s location and understand road features and objects.

Its software then predicts plausible movements by other road users and uses those predictions, together with the map and current observations, to plan a trajectory. That plan includes choices such as speed, lane, and steering actions. Maps provide context; they do not replace real-time sensing. This is Waymo’s high-level account of its system, not a disclosure of all its proprietary algorithms.

Go: carry out the selected trajectory

After the system selects a path, Waymo says motion control handles actions such as acceleration and braking. The company also describes backup computing and redundant steering, braking, power, and positioning systems. These are designed to support a safe stop or continued operation after certain failures; they do not establish that every failure can be avoided.

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Do all Waymo robotaxis use the same sensors?

No. Vehicle platform and system generation matter. Waymo’s public materials describe Jaguar I-PACE vehicles as well as its Ojai vehicle, while its February 2026 announcement describes a sixth-generation system entering an initial operational stage. A specification for one generation should not be assumed to describe another.

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System or vehicle reference What Waymo’s public materials state What that establishes
Jaguar I-PACE fleet Waymo’s technology page specifies 29 cameras. A camera count for the Jaguar I-PACE configuration described on that page, not a fleet-wide count for every generation.
Sixth-generation system Waymo’s February 2026 announcement discusses a 17-megapixel camera imager, imaging radar, lidar redundancy, sensor cleaning, and external audio receivers for sounds including emergency sirens and railroad crossings. Features described for that generation; the announcement does not establish that every Waymo ride uses it.
Ojai Waymo’s FAQ names Ojai among its fleet vehicles. The February 2026 announcement says fully autonomous operations with the sixth-generation system began on Ojai, initially offering employee and guest trips while the rider experience was refined. A rollout stage at the time of the announcement, not proof that the sixth generation was already used for all public trips.

The published materials do not provide an apples-to-apples independent specification comparison across generations. Sensor counts or newer component descriptions alone do not show which system performs better, and claims about a vehicle or generation should not be generalized to every city, weather condition, or software release.

What do maps and testing contribute?

Custom maps give the software a detailed reference for interpreting its surroundings, while sensors provide current information about conditions and road users. Waymo says its safety preparation includes closed-course scenarios, public-road driving, simulation, crash-avoidance tests, hazard analysis, and reliability and durability testing.

Waymo’s current technology page reports more than 40,000 unique closed-course scenarios and more than 20 billion simulated miles. Those are company-published figures; the cited materials do not establish them as independently audited counts.

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Does a human remotely drive a Waymo?

Waymo’s published description of Remote Assistance is that the Waymo Driver can contact a human agent for additional information to help contextualize the vehicle’s surroundings in challenging or uncommon situations. It presents the agent’s role as assistance with context, not as routine remote driving. The materials cited here do not describe the agent remotely steering the vehicle.

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Waymo says Remote Assistance has been part of the system’s design from the beginning and that the program has undergone an independent third-party audit against industry best practices. Those are Waymo’s statements about its program and the audit; they should not be mistaken for a claim that no human assistance is ever involved.

Are Waymo cars actually self-driving?

Waymo calls its system fully autonomous in the operating areas and contexts it describes, and its safety reporting counts “fully autonomous miles.” That term does not mean that one capability claim applies everywhere: service geography, vehicle configuration, software, and operating stage can change. The sixth-generation announcement, for example, described an initial rollout rather than universal deployment.

Waymo’s safety preparation includes multiple types of testing, but company descriptions of capabilities and testing are not independent proof of performance in every circumstance. A useful way to assess a specific claim is to check the vehicle generation, operating geography, date, and conditions it actually covers.

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What do Waymo’s latest published safety figures show?

In an update dated June 24, 2026, Waymo said its analysis covered more than 220 million fully autonomous miles through March 2026 across five operating geographies, including Atlanta for the first time. The following are Waymo-reported comparisons with human drivers in the same areas over the same period. Waymo says the comparisons include collisions regardless of fault.

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Outcome in Waymo’s June 24, 2026 update Waymo-reported difference from the human-driver benchmark
Crashes causing serious or fatal injuries 94% fewer
Crashes involving airbag deployment 82% fewer
Crashes involving any reported injury 82% fewer
Injury-causing crashes involving pedestrians 93% fewer
Injury-causing crashes involving cyclists 84% fewer
Injury-causing crashes involving motorcyclists 84% fewer

For Atlanta specifically, Waymo reported more than 5.4 million fully autonomous miles and comparisons showing 94% fewer crashes involving airbag deployment and 86% fewer crashes involving injury than the human benchmark. The company said both Atlanta comparisons were statistically significant.

These are company-reported comparisons, not a guarantee that an individual trip is risk-free or proof that the system caused every difference. The denominator, comparison group, geography, period, and outcome definition matter when interpreting them. In Waymo’s June 24, 2026 blog post, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute Research Professor Carol Flannagan said the consistency of the results across locations helped support the conclusions, while noting the challenges of making apples-to-apples comparisons when human and Waymo vehicle data sources differ.

What should riders know about cameras and microphones?

Waymo says interior cameras may be used for purposes including cleanliness, lost items, emergencies, rider-rule compliance, service improvement, and safety. The company says support staff may review video in certain circumstances and may access live video during some urgent situations.

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Waymo says cabin microphones are on during calls with Rider Support or when riders choose to enable them. It describes exterior audio detection as a way to identify sirens and other relevant sounds, with technical and procedural safeguards intended to limit collection of human voice data.

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