Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, is expanding into Canada after receiving approval to participate in Ontario’s automated vehicle pilot program.
The company isn’t launching a robotaxi service just yet, though. Waymo tends to follow the same playbook for every new city, gradually proceeding from manual mapping to testing, and eventually operating a commercial service.
Waymo said in a blog post on Friday that its self-driving vehicles will be manually driven in Toronto to create high-definition maps of local street networks. The company will then test its autonomous vehicles on public roads with a human safety operator on board. These operators will eventually be pulled from the driver’s seat, and afterwards the company will invite the public to take rides in its robotaxis.
Waymo’s move into Canada is part of an aggressive push into new markets that’s picking up speed. Two years ago, the company was operating in only three commercial markets, and its robotaxis were not yet driving on freeways. Its expansion plans kicked off in March 2025 with a deployment in Austin, and later in Atlanta. Today, the company has robotaxi services in 15 U.S. cities, and is testing them in London and Tokyo as well.
The company’s co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said the expansion into Canada marks an important milestone in its global journey. This is also the northernmost and possibly most wintry city that Waymo has so far tried to operate in, so these conditions will test its AV technology and operational savviness.
As part of its accelerated expansion strategy, Waymo has started partnering with third-party companies to manage its fleet in each respective city. Toronto is no different: Waymo said it has partnered with Toronto-based Element Fleet Management, and expects to support hundreds of jobs in spaces such as fleet maintenance, validation driving, customer service and operations.
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Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
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