6 westword.com WESTWORD OCTOBER 16-22, 2025 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Buckle Up! WAYMO HAS LANDED IN DENVER, BUT THE ROBOTAXIS COULD BE IN FOR A BUMPY RIDE BY HANNAH METZGER A new type of vehicle has emerged on Den- ver’s roads over the last month: a dozen white electric Jaguars equipped with cameras and sensors that enable the cars to drive without anyone behind the wheel. They’re part of the latest expansion of Waymo, the world’s fi rst autonomous ride- hailing service. The AI-powered vehicles are currently mapping the Mile High City (under the supervision of human employees in the driver’s seat), and are expected to be open to riders by early next year. The robotaxi service has spread nation- wide, from San Francisco to New York City. In October, it was named one of the best inventions of 2025 by Time magazine, which lauded Waymo as a potential solution to traffi c fatalities. Unlike people, the Waymo Driver doesn’t get distracted by a cell phone or fall asleep behind the wheel. It doesn’t lash out from road rage, drive drunk or force unwanted conversation. The future has arrived in Denver...but is it here to stay? Waymo launched its fully driverless service in Phoenix in 2020. Now, the self- driving cabs also operate in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin. In addition to Denver, the company plans to begin au- tonomous rides in Dallas, Nashville, Seattle and Washington, D.C., in 2026. Waymo cars and software are also being tested in several other cities, including New York City and Las Vegas. “Denver’s position as one of the top ride- hailing markets in the U.S. and Colorado’s welcoming regulatory environment make it the perfect place to bring our service,” says Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp, calling the vehicles “a safe, reliable, and magical way to get around.” But the rollouts haven’t always gone smoothly. Waymo recalled over 2,300 self- driving vehicles in 2024 and 2025 following collisions with road barriers, a utility pole and a towed pickup truck. In San Francisco, Waymo taxis received 589 parking tickets in 2024. The National Highway Traffi c Safety Administration launched an investigation into Waymo in 2024 due to such behavior, but closed the probe in July without taking further action. The cyber-cabs made headlines after anti-ICE protesters set the vehicles on fi re in L.A., and when dozens of confused Waymo cars disturbed residents by honking at each other in a self-induced parking-lot traffi c jam. And, of course, when passengers began taking advantage of the driver-free system to have sex in the back seat. Despite this, Waymo is seen by many as the answer to improving road safety. A peer-reviewed study by Waymo found that its self-driving cars had a signifi cantly lower crash rate than human drivers. Accord- ing to the company, each mishap has led to software updates, teaching the Waymo Driver how to better respond in the future. The company calls its system “the world’s most experienced driver,” having traveled over 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads. Local offi cials, including Governor Jared Polis and Mayor Mike Johnston, have em- braced Waymo for this reason. “More choices about how to get where you want to go is a good thing,” Polis says. “Colorado is a national leader in innovation, and we embrace the ways new technology, such as autonomous vehicles, can increase transportation options, improve road safety and, in the case of Waymo, reduce emis- sions and pollution by getting more electric vehicles on the road.” But there is still a long way to go before Denver residents can actually use the new robot chauffeurs — and plenty of roadblocks to overcome. Winter Driving Waymo’s safety results are undeniably impressive. Compared to human drivers, the autonomous vehicles had 81 percent fewer airbag-deploying crashes, 85 percent fewer crashes with serious injuries, 96 percent fewer injury crashes at intersections, and 92 percent fewer crashes that involve injuries to pedestrians across 56.7 million miles driven through the end of January 2025. However, those numbers come from the vehicles’ operations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin. Driving in the mostly dry, warm weather of those cities is very different than driving in the snow, rain and hail of Denver. Karp says Waymo has tested its vehicles in over fi fteen states across the country, including in snowy conditions in Michigan, upstate New York and the Sierra Nevada mountain range. But the company isn’t fully operational in any cold-weather city. “These focused testing visits allow us to gather experience and learnings that we apply across all the cities where we serve and plan to operate,” Karp notes. Waymo Driver works by fi rst mapping the city in which it will operate, including lane markers, stop signs and crosswalks. While driving, the vehicles use 360-degree cameras, radar sensors and lidar sensors to decipher their surroundings. The AI system employs this real-time information and past experience to plan its route and to anticipate and respond to the actions of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Snow, ice and slush can stick to sen- sor housings and “blind or degrade perfor- mance,” says Frances Zhu, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines who researches how autonomous systems perceive their en- vironment and make decisions in uncertain, complex and harsh conditions. According to a Waymo spokesperson, the company “implemented preventive mea- sures to each of our sensors to maintain a clean view of its surroundings.” “It isn’t so much the snow coming down, it’s that the roads completely change when there’s snow,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said during the Atlantic Festival in September. “There’s a human understand- ing of whether or not, or how you’re going to navigate the situation. ...It just takes more experience. Right? This is machine learning and AI. And so, the driver just needs more cycles with those.” NEWS continued on page 8 KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS A Waymo picks up passengers in Los Angeles. WEI/GETT Y IMAGES
