2025 年，Waymo 在旧金山接连出现负面事件：10 月一辆无人计程车辗过一只知名杂货店猫，几周后又撞到未系绳的狗；圣诞节前的周末，部分地区停电导致号志失灵，机器车在路口堵塞、交通打结，Waymo 一度暂停服务。

但在少数已开放无人计程车的主要城市，2025 更像是「普及的一年」。Waymo 的白色电动 Jaguar SUV 已在 6 座城市运营（含亚特兰大、奥斯汀、凤凰城等）；Tesla 在奥斯汀与旧金山扩张（目前仍有安全驾驶），Amazon 旗下 Zoox 也在拉斯维加斯、迈阿密、西雅图等地载客。观光与商务流动让更多人首次自行下载 App 付费搭乘自动驾驶。

产业曾遭遇更严重的挫折：2018 年 Uber 自驾测试车在亚利桑那州坦佩撞死行人；5 年后（2023 年）通用 Cruise 车辆碾压并拖行行人，引发「自动驾驶寒冬」与部分业者退出。如今情绪回暖：Waymo 称每月提供超过 100 万趟全自动行程，目标在 2026 年底达到每周 100 万趟；同时寻求募资 150 亿美元、估值 1000 亿美元。监管重点转向高速与机场等路线，约占所有计程车与网约车行程的 30%。

Waymo’s 2025 looked rough in San Francisco: an October robotaxi ran over a bodega cat, another hit an unleashed dog weeks later, and a pre‑Christmas weekend power outage disabled traffic lights, leaving driverless cars blocking intersections and forcing a temporary service suspension.

Yet across the few major markets where driverless services operate, 2025 felt like the year robotaxis became routine. Waymo’s electric Jaguar SUVs now run in six cities (including Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix). Tesla is scaling in Austin and San Francisco with safety drivers for now, while Amazon’s Zoox carries riders in multiple cities. Travel demand meant many people paid for their first autonomous ride via an app.

The industry is rebounding from a grim safety history: a 2018 Uber self-driving test vehicle killed a pedestrian, and five years later (2023) GM’s Cruise dragged a pedestrian after a prior collision, deepening an “autonomy winter.” Now Waymo claims over 1 million fully autonomous rides per month and targets 1 million per week by end‑2026, while reportedly seeking $15B at a $100B valuation. As firms shift from tech testing to business-model experiments, highways and airports—about 30% of taxi and ride-share trips—are key to profitability.