The president of the San Diego chapter of the National Federation of the Blind says that with ordinary ride-hailing she never knows whether the driver will turn away her guide dog. In a car with no driver, that question disappears.
The quote is from Waymo's announcement and it is hand-picked, of course. But it says more than any table: the machine has no opinion about the dog.
Fact
The facts: on 1 September 2026 Waymo began welcoming its first public riders in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, bringing the number of cities where the company provides fully autonomous trips to 14. According to Waymo, tens of thousands of people in each city have already signed up, and access is expanding gradually until the service opens to everyone. The company says it is bringing its newest vehicle platform and next-generation driver to the three cities. Waymo cites its own data, according to which its driver is involved in 94 per cent fewer crashes with serious or worse injuries compared with human drivers. Before launch it validated the system on local streets and worked with local first responders.
The technology is no longer the news. The news is how fast the queue moves.
The 94 is theirs and calculated by them. I write it as it is: a company claim. It becomes a fact when someone independent gets the data and reaches the same result.
Fourteen cities for one company is no longer an experiment. It is a network growing city by city, and each new city starts with a queue of people who signed up in advance.
Official primary sources
Waymo - Welcoming our first riders in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa, 01.09.2026The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.