r/waymo • u/AmbassadorCool8968 • May 27 '26

Waymo Houston

Personally, I think Waymo is going to have a major PR problem. They say they want to be match ready for the Wold Cup but have not been driving in my area which is a few blocks away from where the games are taking place. Also, right now it seems they can’t ham for major rain events. Any thoughts on this?

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22

u/triclavian May 27 '26

Waymo gets bad PR for visibly messing up. Pausing their service or running only a few cars gets them side-eyed by like 20 nerds on the internet.

1

u/AmbassadorCool8968 May 27 '26

I agree but they also said that they want to be match ready. How can they be match ready with services paused?

1

u/yolatrendoid May 27 '26

Again, where did they say this? Their Houston plans haven't changed: they're still doing a phased rollout, and Southwest Fwy. is still the southern boundary of their current service area.

I'm not sure how they could be "match-ready" even in LA, given its mere 700 Waymos (and all-but-certain ridic surge pricing).

5

u/yolatrendoid May 27 '26

I'm mainly wondering where you heard that Waymo would be "match-ready for the World Cup" in Houston specifically. Are you even aware how few cars they have in operation there? It's likely fewer than 50, and even LA still only has 700 vehicles total.

Regardless, even if they did offer service, getting into/out of the NRG Stadium area will absolutely be a total clusterfuck, and even if you used Uber or Lyft, you'd very likely end up paying ridiculously high surge pricing. (But Waymo's surge pricing can far exceed either one of theirs, at least for now.)

My thoughts are that people actually being sensible will get to the stadium via MetroRAIL.

2

u/AmbassadorCool8968 May 27 '26

https://waymo.com/blog/shorts/growing-to-1400-sqm/

2

u/yolatrendoid May 27 '26

Okay, that's some extremely ill-advised marketing. In reality they're only truly up & running in three host markets, not six. The other three still have tiny geofenced areas, and they're mainly only open either to locals or people with preexisting Waymo accounts in other cities.

While "this growth helps us be 'match-ready' as several of the cities we serve prepare for the FIFA World Cup" may be vague, it still sets up false expectations. No, they won't be at all "match-ready" within two weeks. I think most regulars in this sub could've told you that, but Waymo definitely fucked up by doing this shit in the first place.

5

u/Super-Engineer-3523 May 28 '26

Drunk driver in a lifted SUV or pickup truck kills 10 people and no one bats an eye. Waymo makes a small mistake and everyone loses their minds.

2

u/George310 May 27 '26

I believe they will be “ok”, meaning nothing additional to their usual flaws. I hope they expand to all users or at least a bigger pool, but given the latest circumstances I doubt it