Munich will be the first city in the European Union where Waymo’s robotaxis, owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will land next year. Their arrival in Europe will begin a few months earlier in London, where the autonomous taxi company has been driving the same cars that will offer the service for a year, but so far driven by professional drivers to train their system. The goal is for the passenger to request the vehicle with a mobile app and for the car to take them to their destination. The scene is already common in 11 cities in the United States and will soon be in another 21. It is also common in China. The technology, and very possibly the controversy, are now coming to Europe.
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“Autonomous driving is the key to the mobility of the future. Our goal is to make Germany a world leader in innovation and manufacturing in the field of autonomous driving. We have already established the legal framework for this,” said Christian Hirte, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transport of Germany, in the announcement of the agreement for Waymo to operate in Munich.
The agreement has a strong symbolic charge because the Bavarian capital is the headquarters of two of the major German automotive companies BMW and Audi, of the Volkswagen Group.
Waymo announces that next year it will operate its taxis in Munich (Germany)
Germany presents itself in the EU as the testing ground for these services. Munich is also the headquarters chosen by Uber in Europe, with two different companies, Autobrains, through the Nvidia Drive Hyperion platform, and Momenta, to start offering its autonomous taxi activity.
Freenow, known for its taxi app, now owned by Lyft, and Apollo Go, the autonomous car division of Baidu – the Chinese Google – also plans to start offering its services in Germany.
In another German city, Hamburg, Volkswagen has already launched a pilot robotaxi service, called Moia, using its electric ID. Buzz vans.
Netherlands, Belgium, Lithuania, Estonia, and Denmark have already authorized Tesla’s FSD system
Along with the taxi, other experiences with the autonomous car are beginning to take shape. Since November 2025, Tesla has been testing its supervised autonomous driving FSD system, which can be applied to its private vehicles, those carrying the fourth version of its computer system.
In Spain, Tesla’s FSD has so far traveled about 275,000 kilometers without any significant incidents reported, according to the records of the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT).
Tesla travels 640 million test kilometers in the EU and awaits approvals
So far, five European countries have approved FSD: Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, and Denmark. FSD has traveled more than 640 million kilometers in these European countries, demonstrating that it is 5.1 times safer on highways and 2.7 times safer off highways compared to manual driving.
Tesla claims that with its system there are 9.4 times fewer harsh accelerations, 8 times fewer harsh brakes, and 7.6 times fewer harsh turns.
On October 6, the European Motor Vehicle Technical Committee (TCMV) could vote on the EU-wide approval of Tesla’s system, which would mean the approval of FSD, which owners who pay a subscription could use.
Unlike the autonomous driving systems of robotaxis like Waymo, which are level 4 and can move autonomously in specific environments without a driver, Tesla’s FSD is supervised and level 2. The driver is responsible and must be attentive in case it is necessary to take control in any situation.
Germany presents itself in the EU as the great testing ground for driverless vehicles
Waymo has so far traveled 354 million kilometers and records 94% fewer accidents with serious injuries in the same areas.
Tesla accumulates 23.35 billion kilometers with FSD in the countries where it is authorized (United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, as well as the European countries that already have it). According to its own data, using it leads to 7 times fewer collisions of any kind.
No steering wheel or pedals
Tesla has been offering its robotaxi service, called Cybercab, in metropolitan areas of Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Austin, Dallas, and Houston. So far it has used one of its commercial models, the Model Y, but it has already announced that it will soon put its specific model for these purposes on the streets. Tesla’s Cybercab is a two-seater electric car that not only has no driver but also has no steering wheel or pedals.
The first city where it will be put into circulation is the capital of Texas, Austin. Another novelty is that any private citizen will be able to buy one or more of these vehicles to add them to Tesla’s robotaxi fleet and earn money from the trips their vehicles make.
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