Summary
Waymo says it is preparing a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the Region of Madrid, with first riders targeted for 2027. Its initial work will use manually driven vehicles before technical validation with trained local specialists.
Waymo says it is laying the groundwork for a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Spain, beginning in the Region of Madrid, and aims to welcome its first riders in 2027. The company announced the plan on October 20, 2026, as an expansion of its commercial autonomous-driving operations.
In the coming days, Waymo expects its electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles to appear on roads in the region. The first phase will involve manual driving, followed by technical validation with trained local autonomous specialists behind the wheel. Waymo says this process is intended to help its driving system adapt to Madrid’s traffic patterns and road conditions.
A staged entry into Madrid
The announcement describes preparation and testing, not an immediate start to passenger service. Waymo says it is engaging with national, regional and local authorities, introducing emergency services to its technology, and working with local partners while investing in operations to support a future service.
The sequence matters because an autonomous-driving system must operate amid the specific road layouts, traffic behaviour and conditions of the places where it is used. Waymo’s stated approach is to begin with manually driven vehicles and move on to validation with specialists before aiming to carry riders. The company says its existing operations have completed more than 20 million trips and provide hundreds of thousands of commercial rides each week.
Waymo’s reported safety comparison
Waymo says data from more than 400 million kilometres driven fully autonomously show that its system was involved in 95% fewer crashes involving serious injury or worse than human drivers in the cities where the company operates. Waymo characterises this as a 20-times lower crash rate.
That figure is a company-reported comparison across its existing operating cities. It is not a result from Madrid, where the announced validation work is still ahead. The announcement does not detail the comparison’s methodology, so the statistic is best read as Waymo’s summary of its safety data rather than as a Madrid-specific forecast.
The company says it is working toward a service that fits Spanish national and regional regulatory frameworks and local needs. Its stated target is to begin serving riders in 2027.