Millions of Trips, "Waymo" Empty Miles: California's First Thousand Days of Commercial Robotaxi Service | Published in Findings

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ISSN 2652-8800<br>Transport Findings<br>May 19, 2026 AESTMillions of Trips, “Waymo” Empty Miles: California’s First Thousand Days of Commercial Robotaxi Service

Awad Abdelhalim,

robotaxiautonomous vehiclesvehicle miles traveledrideshare<br>Copyright Logoccby-sa-4.0 • https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.161870

Findings<br>Abdelhalim, Awad. 2026. “Millions of Trips, ‘Waymo’ Empty Miles: California’s First Thousand Days of Commercial Robotaxi Service.” Findings, May 18. https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.161870.

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Data Sets/Files (4)

Download all (4)<br>Fig. 1. Monthly trips completed and total VMT (by component) of Waymo vehicles across California.<br>Download

Fig. 2. Monthly VMT components as a percentage of total VMT.<br>Download

Fig. 3. Monthly average deadheading and passenger miles per trip completed.<br>Download

Aggregated Monthly Data Reported to CPUC<br>Download

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Abstract<br>Autonomous rideshare services, generally referred to as robotaxis, have been scaling up rapidly in the United States. However, there is very little visibility into the operations of these services and their impact on urban congestion, particularly when vehicles are cruising without passengers onboard. We analyzed the composition of more than 86 million total vehicle miles traveled over approximately 14 million Waymo robotaxi trips, using data reported to the California Public Utilities Commission from August 2023 through December 2025. We found that only about 54% of all miles traveled by Waymos in California are driven with a passenger onboard.

1. Questions

Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., launched the United States’ first full-time commercial autonomous rideshare service in San Francisco in August 2023. Robotaxi services, by Waymo and other players, have since rapidly expanded across California and other states (Business Insider 2025). In conventional rideshare (e.g., Uber and Lyft) deadheading, the miles driven without a fare-paying passenger, has been estimated to exceed 40% of the total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) (Henao et al. 2019), and research suggests that autonomous vehicles are unlikely to change the resistance of auto users to shared services that may help reduce this inefficiency and its negative impacts on urban congestion (Schaller 2021). In this study, we ask: (1) What proportion of Waymo’s total VMT in California is driven without a passenger onboard? (2) How has this proportion changed over the first approximately 1,000 days of commercial service? (3) Do trip volume growth and geographic service expansion lead to observable efficiency gains that reduce deadheading?

2. Methods

We analyze aggregated operational data that Waymo reports quarterly to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), as required by all autonomous vehicle (AV) passenger service providers in California (California Public Utilities Commission 2026). The publicly available reports are highly redacted due to confidentiality claims by the AV operators. Unredacted, however, are monthly aggregated records of total trips completed, passengers carried, and VMT disaggregated into three periods: (i) VMT Period 1: miles driven as vehicles reposition and await rider requests; (ii) VMT Period 2: miles driven traveling to a confirmed passenger pick-up location; and (iii) VMT Period 3: miles driven from passenger pick-up to drop-off. We define deadheading broadly as the sum of miles traveled in the first two periods.

3. Findings

Table 1.Aggregate Statistics of Waymo Robotaxi Services in California, August 2023 - December 2025

Total<br>Average Monthly Growth

Total Trips Completed<br>13,790,147<br>15.16%

Vehicle Miles Traveled<br>86,269,177<br>15.17%

Passengers Carried<br>19,317,109<br>15.14%

A key observation is the dramatic growth of Waymo’s service in the 29-month period of analysis, averaging an excess of 15% every month, and reaching as high as 50% in mid-2024 as the service was expanded into Los Angeles and waitlist restrictions in San Francisco were removed. This growth is clearly illustrated in Figure 1. In addition to VMT and trip volume growth, the figure illustrates key Waymo service milestones in the state of California to help identify the drivers of observed growth. A temporary decline in both trips and VMT is highlighted during June 2025 as service was...