Waymo‘s autonomous vehicle testing in New York City has come to a halt after permits from the city Department of Transportation (DOT) and the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles expired on March 31.
The Alphabet subsidiary had been operating eight Jaguar I-PACE vehicles with trained safety specialists behind the wheel in Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan south of 112th Street since last August.
Waymo was the first and only autonomous vehicle testing programme ever approved in New York City, and no collisions were reported during the entire testing period, according to NYC DOT.
How It Started
The programme was approved on August 22, 2025, by then-Mayor Eric Adams and DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez.
Adams, who had described his administration as “tech-friendly,” granted Waymo the city’s first-ever AV testing permit after the company applied in June 2024 under a safety framework the Adams administration had launched earlier that year.
The permit allowed up to eight vehicles to operate in supervised autonomous mode — meaning the car’s self-driving system was engaged but a human specialist sat behind the wheel at all times, ready to take control. No passengers were carried.
Waymo was required to report data and meet regularly with DOT officials.
The initial term ran through late September 2025.
On October 1, 2025, the company wrote on X that the permit had been extended.
“The @ NYC_DOThas extended our autonomous driving permit through the end of the year, enabling us to continue laying the groundwork to bring safe, reliable mobility to New Yorkers in the future,” Waymo wrote.
It was extended through the end of 2025 and then again through March 31, 2026.
Waymo first brought vehicles to New York in 2021 — Chrysler Pacifica minivans used for manual mapping and data collection, not autonomous driving. The 2025 permit marked the first time any company was authorised to engage autonomous driving technology on city streets.
Political Shift
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who succeeded Adams, has deep ties to the taxi driver community.
In 2021, he participated in a 15-day hunger strike alongside the New York Taxi Workers Alliance to push for medallion debt relief.
When asked whether his administration would renew the testing permit, Mamdani was non-committal.
“If a company like Waymo finds itself in New York City, what they will also find is a City government that is committed to delivering for the workers who keep the city running,” the mayor said at a press conference.
“Those workers also include our taxi drivers who, for far too long, have been sold a dream of being able to work their way to the middle class, only to have the rug pulled out from under them,” he added.
His DOT spokesperson said that “any AV policy decisions will centre workers and their well-being,” according to The City.
The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission licences close to 180,000 drivers — a workforce that views autonomous vehicles as a direct threat to its livelihood.
At the state level, Governor Kathy Hochul withdrew a proposal in February that would have allowed limited commercial robotaxi deployment outside New York City. The plan, introduced in her State of the State address, was pulled after labour unions and rideshare drivers mounted immediate opposition and legislative support failed to materialise.
A separate 2021 state bill that would have removed the requirement for a human driver has never advanced, despite Waymo spending more than $3 million lobbying city and state officials since 2019, The City reported.
Labour Opposition
The Independent Drivers Guild, which represents over 80,000 Uber and Lyft drivers, gathered more than 20,000 signatures on a petition to ban autonomous vehicle testing and services in New York.
Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, told The City that “neither the city nor the state are ready,” adding that allowing companies to deploy “means they will shape what the policies will be.”
Sam Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner and now director of the transportation research programme at Hunter College, called for independent studies of autonomous vehicle safety data, noting that Waymo declined to share any findings from its months of testing in the city.
Schwartz pointed to New York’s unique challenges — aggressive pedestrians, a large senior population, and cyclists ranging from walking pace to e-bike speeds of 30 miles per hour — as factors that make the city fundamentally different from markets where Waymo already operates.
What Comes Next
A Waymo spokesperson said the company is “hopeful” the state DMV testing permit will be renewed as part of the current state budget negotiations. If it is, Waymo will “evaluate its driving operations within New York City.”
But even renewed testing would not bring commercial robotaxi service.
New York state law requires a human driver behind the wheel, and changing that requires legislation that has shown no sign of advancing. Commercial for-hire service would also require a separate TLC licence, which has never been sought.
Waymo‘s lobbying infrastructure remains in place. State records show the company retained The Parkside Group at $15,000 per month through at least September 2026 to lobby on autonomous vehicle legislation. Other firms — Bolton-St. Johns, Kasirer, CMW Strategies, and Brown & Weinraub — have been engaged at various points since 2019.
Assemblyman Brian Cunningham, who sponsors the stalled driverless vehicle bill, has tested Waymo vehicles in Atlanta and plans to bring fellow lawmakers to Phoenix for demonstrations.
“We don’t have to be first,” he said. “But we have to be best.”
Global Expansion
The New York pause contrasts with Waymo’s acceleration elsewhere. Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said last week that the company now provides 500,000 paid rides per week across ten US cities, targeting one million by year-end.
Washington, DC, is lined up as the next domestic market, with expansion plans for 18 additional US cities.
Internationally, Waymo signaled last week that a commercial launch in Tokyo could come within months.
Chief Product Officer Saswat Panigrahi said at a media briefing in the Japanese capital that the company’s technology is technically close to ready, though regulatory approval would still be required.
London is also expected to be among its first international markets.
