Waymo launched its paid robotaxi service on Tuesday in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, extending the Alphabet-backed operator’s fully autonomous ride-hailing network to 14 US cities. Tens of thousands of riders in each city had already signed up before the service went live, the company said. Denver’s service area covers 59 square miles, San Diego’s spans 47 and Tampa’s runs across 44 — a combined 150 square miles of new coverage. According to Waymo, more riders will steadily gain access in the coming weeks as each market works toward an open service. “From coast to coast, we’re focused on making everyday transportation safer, easier, and more accessible,” the company’s Chief Marketing Officer Suzanne Philion stated. Tampa Welcomes Second Operator Tampa became the latest US city where both Waymo and Tesla operate commercial robotaxi services simultaneously — after Dallas, Houston, Miami, and Orlando. The Elon Musk-led company expanded its unsupervised ride-hailing service to Tampa and Orlando in July, making the Florida market one of the latest markets where its Model Y-based robotaxis carry paying passengers. Waymo’s Tampa geofence is nearly double the size of Tesla’s, however. According to geofence data shared on Monday by X user and Tesla shareholder Sawyer Merritt, Tesla’s Tampa service area covers roughly 24 square miles — compared with 44 for Waymo. The two companies operate on fundamentally different technical architectures. Waymo Ojai vehicles are equipped with 13 cameras, four lidar units and six radar sensors, with no human behind the wheel. According to Forbes, Waymo has imported more than 3,200 Zeekr vehicles through the Port of Los Angeles since 2024, more than 2,600 of them in 2026 alone, paying a tariff of roughly 127.5%. Tesla deploys its Full Self-Driving software — classified by California regulators as SAE Level 2 — on production Model Y vehicles, and