{"id":167324,"date":"2026-02-24T19:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167324\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:27:07","slug":"driverless-ride-hailing-service-makes-its-debut-in-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167324\/","title":{"rendered":"Driverless ride-hailing service makes its debut in Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 There\u2019s a new way to get around Orlando\u2019s roadways, but it doesn\u2019t require a driver.<\/p>\n

Waymo<\/a>, the driverless ride-hailing service, welcomed its first public riders in Orlando on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Waymo is now offering its first public rides in Orlando
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The driverless ride-hailing service covers 60 square miles
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Currently, the Waymo vehicles won\u2019t drive on I-4 or other freeways
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Those who want to take a ride must download the Waymo app and join the waitlist<\/p>\n

Waymo has been testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Orlando for more than six months, conducting detailed mapping of the area.<\/p>\n

Now the company is ready to service riders across 60 square miles, from just north of downtown Orlando nearly all the way to Walt Disney World.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This map shows Waymo’s service area in the Orlando area. (Courtesy of Waymo)<\/p>\n

The only hitch is the vehicles do not operate on freeways, and that means no Interstate 4 and no access to the airport, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer was one of the first to take a ride Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery smooth, I felt extremely safe, obeyed all the traffic laws, felt more comfortable than the people I ride with,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are concerns about crashes, and with 3,000 vehicles across 10 cities, there have been incidents involving Waymo.<\/p>\n

But a company spokesperson said its vehicles are safer than those with human drivers, even in Orlando’s ever-changing weather, because they are never tired, impaired or distracted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a suite of sensors \u2014 from cameras, lidars, radars and audio sensors \u2014 to give a lot of detailed information about the world around it that we feel is better than a human driver,\u201d Waymo spokesperson Mark Lewis said.<\/p>\n

Waymo has a couple dozen of its outfitted Jaguar I-PACE vehicles ready to roll through Orlando\u2019s surface streets.<\/p>\n

Those who\u2019ve already downloaded the app will be invited to take the first local rides, and Waymo will roll it out to more who join the waitlist, eventually opening the service to everyone later this year.<\/p>\n

How Waymo works<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 There\u2019s a new way to get around Orlando\u2019s roadways, but it doesn\u2019t require a driver.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,2175,28,2176,115,1335,139,141,140,278,729,2177],"class_list":{"0":"post-167324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-app-traffic-and-transit","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jerry-hume","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-traffic","19":"tag-traffic-and-transit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}