Eight Waymo robotaxis ran for seven months in New York without a crash. Permits expired March 31 anyway. The mayor gave a 14-sentence non-answer. Waymo spent more than 3 million lobbying New York, per THE CITY.
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani has declined to renew Waymo's autonomous vehicle testing permits in New York City, effectively ending the company's pilot program that operated in Downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. The decision reflects political opposition rather than safety concerns, as Waymo reported zero collisions during its testing period. With NYC—the country's largest taxi market—now closed to robotaxis, Waymo is evaluating whether to resume operations pending the outcome of state-level DMV permit negotiations in the current legislative session.
Waymo's Robotaxis Hit a Political Dead End in New York City
For a few months last year, eight Waymo vehicles rolled through Downtown Brooklyn and south of 112th Street in Manhattan, testing autonomous driving with a safety specialist behind the wheel. The permits that let them do it expired March 31. Now they are gone.
What happened in New York is not a story about technology. It is a story about political will — or the absence of it.
The permits were first approved by Mayor Eric Adams in August 2025, according to THE CITY. Governor Kathy Hochul then rolled back her own AV proposal in February after an outcry from taxi drivers' unions. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took office this year, has not renewed the city permits and offered no timeline for doing so. His statement was a sentence, not a policy: any AV decisions, he said, would center workers and their well-being.
Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, has spent more than $3 million lobbying city and state leaders since 2019, according to THE CITY. Other estimates put the figure lower — Route Fifty reported at least $2.5 million and POLITICO reported at least $1.8 million over the same period, with the variation reflecting different scopes and cutoff dates. The company says it is waiting to see if the state DMV testing permit gets renewed in this year's budget negotiations. If it does, Waymo will evaluate whether to resume operations in the city. The company is otherwise expanding — it now operates in roughly 10 metropolitan areas including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami, per THE CITY reporting. But New York, the largest taxi market in the country, remains closed.
The New York DMV's current permit framework for autonomous vehicle testing expires April 1. The legislative session that could extend or replace it is ongoing.
There is a factual absence at the center of this story that is worth naming: Waymo reported zero collisions during its New York testing period, per NYC DOT data reported by THE CITY. Eight vehicles. Seven months of testing. No incidents. That data point exists in the public record and it does not appear to have changed the outcome.
What changed the outcome is politics. Taxi driver unions have been explicit that they view autonomous vehicles as an existential threat to their livelihoods. Hochul's retreat on AV expansion came after taxi union opposition aligned with her broader legislative priorities. The Mamdani administration is not signaling a reversal.
The broader AV industry is moving regardless. Uber recently announced a partnership with Rivian to deploy up to 50,000 robotaxis by 2031, starting in San Francisco and Miami. Waymo is already operating in multiple major metros outside New York. None of them are in New York.
New York was never inevitable as an AV city. It is a dense, aggressive driving environment with a powerful regulated taxi industry and a city government that has shown no appetite for accelerating the transition. The permits expired. The question now is whether anyone in state or city government wants to be the one who lets them come back.
Waymo is waiting for an answer. It is not pressuring publicly. That restraint is itself a signal — the company appears to have calculated that a quiet conversation with Albany is more useful than a public fight.
The eight cars are gone. The permits are expired. The industry is watching to see if New York decides it wants to be part of the robotaxi map, or if the city has made its answer clear.
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Research completed — 6 sources registered. NYC DOT and NY State DMV permits expired March 31 2026. 8 vehicles tested. Zero collisions reported. Governor Hochul reversed AV expansion after taxi
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