Waymo is accelerating its rollout of robotaxis in the U.S.

• Last month, the company announced its expansion to Charlotte and four more cities in Texas and Florida

Why it matters: Armed with $16 billion in fresh capital from parent Alphabet and others, Waymo is quickly extending its lead over other players like Tesla and Amazon-owned Zoox, which are still mostly in testing mode.

How it works: The service will start slowly, with riders invited on a rolling basis until Waymo adds more cars to its fleet and scales up necessary operations like vehicle charging, service and maintenance.

• By later this year, it will be more widely available, Waymo says.

By the numbers: Now in 10 cities, Waymo has doubled the number of markets it serves in a matter of months.

• It's laying the groundwork for service in at least 20 cities, and is on track to provide more than one million driverless rides per week by the end of the year.
• It has about 3,000 robotaxis deployed nationwide, more than one-third of them in the San Francisco Bay area.

What we're watching: Waymo's robotaxis are adapting quickly to new markets, but basic operational challenges — such as charging and maintenance — could constrain network growth.

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Misreading local politics could foil Waymo's ambitious growth plans, erasing the giant lead it has over competitors.

State of play: While self-driving cars are permitted in about half the country, the laws would have to be changed in places like Washington, D.C., and New York, where a human operator is still required behind the wheel.

• In other states, the law is silent on driverless cars, which means it's open to interpretation — and debate.
• North Carolina law allows for fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads without a human driver.
• City leaders in some places, including Boston and Seattle, are proposing new ordinances that would prohibit autonomous vehicles.

The intrigue: Waymo replaced its global head of public policy last year to deal with the mounting headwinds.

• Justin Kintz previously led the policy team at Uber during its early growth period, when the ride-hailing network was unwelcome just about everywhere.
• At Waymo, he will likely draw on that experience to try to push local legislation that is more favorable toward robotaxis.

What they're saying: "The biggest hurdle Waymo faces is not understanding local politics," says AV policy expert Grayson Brulte, founder and CEO of The Road to Autonomy, a strategic advisory firm.

• "They're going into markets where the policy is not ready yet," he said.
• It can take years to pass new legislation in many states, which could delay Waymo's plans.

Read more.

A Waymo robotaxi incident outside a California elementary school in January suggests an AI brain would react faster than a human, but it's not that simple.

The big picture: This incident fits into a much larger debate about whether autonomous vehicles can match — or exceed — the safety of human drivers.

• People fear self-driving cars, yet nearly 40,000 people are killed each year in traffic accidents involving human drivers.
• The answer to that question is crucial to winning the public's trust as robotaxis spread quickly across America.

Catch up quick: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating after a Waymo robotaxi struck a child who ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV.

• Police said first responders evaluated the student, with her parent present, and did not report any injuries.

The intrigue: Waymo claims its driverless vehicle behaved as expected, slamming the brakes as soon as it detected the child, slowing from 17 mph to under 6 mph before making contact.

• A "fully attentive human driver" in the same situation would have hit the child at approximately 14 mph, according to Waymo's computer modeling.
• "This significant reduction in impact speed and severity is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver, " the company wrote in a Jan. 28 blog post.

Reality check: Reacting quickly isn't the only way to avoid crashes, safety experts tell Axios. Context, judgment and driving experience matter, too.

• Young drivers have quicker reflexes, for example — but old drivers have much better safety records, notes AV safety expert Philip Koopman, emeritus professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
• A careful, competent human driver would have avoided a panic stop in the first place by adjusting their driving behavior amid the chaos of school drop-off — or taking a different route altogether, he argued.

Go deeper.

Axios Miami's Martin Vassolo tested one of the company's self-driving cars earlier this year in Little Havana.

His experience: The Waymo team set him up on a preplanned ride starting near Macondo Coffee Roasters on Calle Ocho and ending up at Coral Gate Park, taking about 30 minutes round-trip.

His review: It was a smooth and surprisingly human-like ride.

• He sat in the back seat as the electric Jaguar SUV (Waymo's standard car for Miami) navigated around intersections, pedestrians and stopped vehicles.
• What most surprised him — other than the sight of a steering wheel moving on its own — was how the car's AI brain reacted to obstacles in the road with assertive fluidity.

At another tricky intersection — one without a traffic light — the Waymo slowly eased forward to check for cars before taking a left turn across four lanes of traffic.

✅ Do's:

• Tap the tablet: The in-car screen allows passengers to control music, climate and ride functions.
• Wear your seatbelt. It's the right call in every ride ... but the Waymo won't start moving until you do buckle up.
• Try out the back right seat. You get a good view of the steering wheel spinning to make turns (if that sight doesn't freak you out).

❌ Don'ts

• Don't sit in the driver's seat. Feel free to sit shotgun, however.
• Don't touch the steering wheel or other driving controls. "Somebody from rider support will get on and say, 'Please don't do that,'" Waymo's Ethan Teicher told Axios.
• Don't smoke or vape in the car. You wouldn't do that with a human behind the wheel, would you?
• Don't expect the vehicle to speed. The vehicle follows the rules of the road and does not mimic other drivers' behaviors.

ICYMI: Axios' McKenzie Rankin recently took a driverless ride in Austin