Waymo Picks Toronto as First Canada City, Targets Riders in 2028

Waymo will expand into Canada, with Toronto as its first city in the country, the self driving unit of Alphabet announced on Friday, October 16, 2026. The move follows approval for the company to take part in Ontario's automated vehicle pilot program. It is not an immediate robotaxi launch. Waymo targets welcoming its first public riders in Toronto in 2028.

The company will start in a familiar way. In the coming days, its vehicles will be driven manually on Toronto streets to build high definition maps of the city. After that mapping phase, Waymo will test on public roads with a trained human safety operator on board. Driverless operation comes later, in the phased approach the company has used elsewhere.

A fleet partner in Toronto

Toronto based Element Fleet Management will manage onsite fleet operations under an expanded partnership. The work covers areas such as fleet maintenance, validation driving, customer service and operations. Hundreds of jobs are expected over time from the arrangement, as the local operation grows from mapping and testing toward a public service.

Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana described the Canada expansion as an important milestone in the company's global journey. The language fits the scale of the step. Canada is a new national market for the company, and Toronto adds a large city with hard winter weather to its map.

Snow, cold and a northern test

Toronto is Waymo's northernmost city so far, and possibly its most wintry. That will test the system in snow and cold, conditions that matter for sensors, road markings and driving behaviour. A service that aims to run year round in Canada has to handle winter as a normal part of operations, not as a rare event.

Waymo now runs robotaxi services in 15 cities in the United States. It is also testing in London and Tokyo. The company says its system has logged more than 400 million kilometres of fully autonomous driving. It also says it was involved in 95 percent fewer crashes with serious injury or worse than human drivers in the cities where it operates. Both figures are claims by the company about its own record.

The company already has Canadian ties. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is a long term investor in Waymo. Magna International, a Canadian company, is a manufacturing partner. Those links give the expansion a base in Canada before the first public rider takes a trip.

The rules still need work

What happens next depends in part on regulation. Ontario still needs a commercial framework for paid driverless rides. Reporting on the announcement notes that the current pilot regulation is set to expire on October 13, 2027. That date falls before Waymo's 2028 target for first public riders in Toronto.

The gap leaves time, but it also sets a clear task for the province and the company. Mapping can begin now, and testing with a safety operator can follow under the pilot. A paid driverless service for the public needs rules that cover that commercial step. Until that framework is in place, the 2028 goal rests on both technical progress in Toronto and regulatory work in Ontario.

For Toronto riders, the near term sight will be Waymo vehicles on local streets with people driving them. The longer term promise is a driverless service, tested first in a city where winter will give the technology a hard and useful exam.