A dozen Waymo driverless cars are in uptown Charlotte. What could happen next
Driverless robotaxis have landed in Charlotte.
Waymo’s white fully-electric Jaguars were spotted in a gravel lot near Panthers practice fields in uptown. There are a dozen Waymo vehicles lined up in the back of the parking lot on the dead end McNinch Street, The Charlotte Observer confirmed.
Waymo is an autonomous ride-hailing service available around Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., Google‘s parent company.
On Monday, a Redditor posted on social media a photo after seeing Waymo’s cars unloaded in Charlotte. “Waymo wants to play bumper cars in Nascartown,” one person said on the Reddit post.
A Waymo spokesperson confirmed the company would have more to share soon, but did not elaborate. City of Charlotte and state officials could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Waymo has been expanding through Uber in Austin, Texas, and in Atlanta. The company also is expanding in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, Texas; Miami and Orlando, Florida; Boston and Sacramento, California. As of December 2025, it operates over 450,000 rides per week.
Reaction to Waymo driverless taxis
Several people shared mixed reactions about their experiences taking robotaxis in other cities. One person said their robotaxi stopped in traffic with cars buzzing by while another said the car went the wrong way on a one-way street under construction.
“Horrible. Almost got killed by one of these,” one person said.
But others defended robotaxis saying they’re safer than human drivers. “I’ve never been truly relaxed in a car before. I’m stoked to have them here.”
Many people also said Waymo experiences can’t be worse than interactions with Charlotte drivers.
“They’re going to drive themselves back to the west coast after seeing how we drive,” another person said.
Where are Waymo’s driverless taxis
Here’s a glance at where Waymo operates now.
The metro Phoenix territory includes 315 square miles of downtown Phoenix, Scottsdale, and parts of Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, and the Salt River Pima.
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Riders in the San Francisco Bay area can travel all over San Francisco and down the peninsula to explore neighborhoods between San Francisco and San Jose. And in Los Angeles, Waymo operates across more than 120 square miles from Santa Monica to Inglewood and downtown LA.
This month, the company logged 200 million miles on public roads driven fully autonomously and 250 million paid robotaxi rides in the U.S., CNBC reported.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 3:59 PM with the headline "A dozen Waymo driverless cars are in uptown Charlotte. What could happen next."
