Some of the things that make a good driver — experience, paying attention, engaging all the senses (including common sense) — are no longer just human qualities.

The tech that operates self-driving cars has them, too, experts say. And in 2026, Baltimoreans will likely get to see if it’s up to some new Charm City challenges, like its plethora of potholes, old narrow streets, or snow and ice the cars haven’t seen in sunny Phoenix or Austin, Texas.

Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company, Alphabet, announced last week that its self-driving taxis are coming to Baltimore as well as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, part of the company’s continuing expansion.

Baltimoreans have already seen a handful of vehicles out and about, though they have real people behind the wheel for now as the company maps out the city on its network before handing the keys to the machines. Experts say it could be the beginning of evolving into a smarter city that brings greater safety and accessibility, though the company is still working out some kinks.

In the five big metro areas they currently serve — Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco in addition to Austin and Phoenix — they’ve become a transportation staple. That’s due to Alphabet’s deep pockets and billions of dollars from outside investors that helped advance the autonomous vehicle technology.

Now, Waymo — not a publicly traded company itself, though some analysts predict it will become one soon — has its sights set on more mid-sized cities as it aims to grow from startup disruptor to profitable venture.

Read More

Waymo’s self-driving taxis are coming to Baltimore

Dec 4, 2025

The safety data gathered by the company was the “push that we should be bringing this to more people and more places. We don’t want to restrict that to just a handful of cities, but to places all over the U.S. and the world,” said Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher.

Company officials said their entrance into the Baltimore market will be gradual and phased, meaning residents won’t have the chance to take a ride until late 2026 at the earliest.

A Waymo taxi literally starts out as an everyday electric car. Their base SUV is a Jaguar I-Pace, and future vehicles will use other, regularly available consumer options like the Hyundai Ionic 5, Teicher said.

But Waymo is also way more — get it? — than just four wheels and a battery.

The company tricks the cars out in its Arizona assembly facility with the hardware that act as its “senses” and makes the vehicles what Teicher called “the most mature manifestation of AI infrastructure in the physical world.”

Multiple cameras are like its eyes, giving the car a 360-degree view. They see the colors of the street lights and read road signs. Radar and Lidar — sensors that use radio waves and changes in light — give it depth perception and a “feel” for the road. They also have EARS, too — External Audio Receivers (essentially, microphones that allow them to take in auditory cues, like from the sirens of emergency vehicles).

It’s all connected with a big computer in the trunk that runs proprietary software using artificial intelligence to interpret the vehicle’s surroundings and make split-second decisions.

Waymo plans to invest tens of millions of dollars in depot infrastructure and personnel, Teicher said, so that when a car is running low on battery, it will automatically head back to a Baltimore hub and get plugged in by an employee.

Just as humans have eyes, ears and other senses, autonomous vehicles have multiple sensor types to give them built-in redundancy, which increases safety, said Dr. Mansoureh Jeihani, a professor, researcher and director of the National Transportation Center at Morgan State University. Her team researches how some of the same sensor technology can help transportation officials plan infrastructure changes to make roads and intersections safer.

The safety data for autonomous vehicles is promising, and, over time, greater reliance on them will likely drive down the rate of deaths and injuries from serious crashes, she said.

“Nothing is 100% — some crashes are going to happen, but the precision and the reliability are quite high,” Jeihani said. “The machine error is less than human error.”

But some recent errors point to a technology that is still evolving. Waymo just issued a voluntary software recall after several instances when vehicles drove around school buses that had stopped for students. The company told NPR it had identified a bug in the software that contributed to the instances and is working on a solution.

“This is a 100% game changer,” said Ronza Othman, president of the National Federation of the Blind Maryland.

Othman said she and many others who are blind rely on rideshare services like Uber or taxis to get around, but discrimination from drivers is “rampant.”

Countless drivers have canceled rides and refused to take her, assuming she’ll be difficult or need extra accommodations. Othman said it’s even worse for people with service animals.

When she called a Waymo for the first time during a trip to Phoenix, the car “sang a song” for her when it arrived to identify itself. She unlocked it and opened the trunk through the app, and could even choose what music to listen to during the ride. No more convincing drivers to let her in the car, she said.

“I thought, ‘if I could travel this way at home in Baltimore ... I’d feel more motivated to go more places.’”

The vehicles also “show great promise” for older adults who may be ready to give up driving, said state Motor Vehicle Administrator Chrissy Nizer, who is part of the Maryland Automated and Connected Vehicles working group that’s planning how the state can embrace the technology. The working group will get a demonstration Thursday from Waymo.

“I’m so optimistic we’re going to have a smart city that is safer and more accommodating for people," said Jeihani, who has also been part of the Maryland working group.

Self-driving cars have been known to be quite cautious at times, especially when reacting to ... let’s call it the “unpredictability” of human drivers. Waymo vehicles have frustrated passengers by stopping behind double-parked cars in the middle of the road and not pulling around them. Tesla owners have had to take the wheel back after their cars got a little too deferential in parking lots in self-driving mode.

But the machines are learning. San Franciscans are noticing Waymo vehicles are starting to behave a bit more like humans, making illegal U-turns and accelerating quicker.

It’s part of a programming change, Teicher said.

Making sure the vehicles operate safely but are “appropriately assertive” is a “new and nuanced challenge,” he said.

Whether appropriately or not, Baltimore drivers are certainly assertive — and there’s no doubt they’ll be anxious to see what Waymo vehicles learn from them.

Once a Waymo taxi blocks the box in a President Street intersection, Baltimore will know the rollout is truly complete.

This article has been updated to reflect the software recall that Waymo made this weekend.