Waymo Is Coming to Spain, Starting With Madrid

Waymo is heading to Spain. The Alphabet-owned self-driving company said on 20 October 2026 that it is “laying the groundwork for our fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Spain, beginning with the Region of Madrid”. In a blog post, it said: “We aim to welcome our first riders in 2027.”

No one will be riding in a driverless Waymo in Madrid yet. The first step is manual driving, with Waymo’s electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles due on the region’s streets “in the coming days”. The move follows Waymo’s announcement last week that it is heading to Toronto, its first Canadian city.

In brief

Waymo says it is laying the groundwork for a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Spain, starting with the Region of Madrid, and aims to carry its first riders in 2027.
Its Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will appear in the region in the coming days, driven manually at first, then validated with trained specialists behind the wheel.
Waymo claims its driver was involved in 95% fewer crashes involving serious injury or worse than humans, based on its own data from 400 million autonomous kilometres.

A phased start

Waymo describes “a methodical, phased, safety-first approach that begins with manual driving before progressing to rigorous technical validation with local, trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel.” It says this validation period will help the Waymo Driver, its self-driving system, adapt to the region’s traffic patterns and road conditions.

The company says it is “actively engaging with national, regional, and local authorities”, and familiarising emergency services with its technology. It is also working with local partners and investing in the local operations needed to support the service. Waymo’s post does not name any regulatory approval for driverless operation in Spain or give a timetable beyond the 2027 goal.

“Madrid is an incredible capital of innovation and an integral part of our growing global presence. We can’t wait to serve Madrileños,” said Waymo co-chief executive Tekedra Mawakana. “We share the region’s commitment to safer, more accessible, and zero-emission mobility, and we look forward to serving as a collaborative partner in achieving those goals.”

Waymo’s safety pitch

Waymo leans heavily on safety in its announcement. “The data from over 400 million fully autonomous kilometres driven shows the Waymo Driver was involved in 95% fewer (20x fewer) crashes involving serious injury or worse compared to humans in the cities where we operate,” the company says. That comparison is Waymo’s own analysis of its US operations, not an independent study, and it has not yet driven autonomously in Spain.

The post also quotes Spanish road-safety groups. “At FESVIAL, we believe autonomous driving represents a great opportunity to turn innovation into an ally of human capability and road safety,” said Ignacio Lijarcio, president of the Spanish Road Safety Foundation. Mar Cogollos of AESLEME, the Spanish Association for the Study of Spinal Cord Injury, said: “For AESLEME, the priority is to achieve safe mobility where no one loses their life or suffers serious injury in an avoidable road accident.”

Part of a fast expansion

Waymo says it has completed “over 20 million trips” and serves “hundreds of thousands of commercial rides” each week. Madrid adds to a busy month. On 16 October, Waymo said it was going to Toronto, aiming for first riders in 2028. On 14 October it opened driverless rides to anyone in San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa.

The expansion is backed by fresh money. Earlier this month Waymo closed a $5 billion term loan, its first debt financing. Semafor reported on 19 October, citing people familiar with the matter, that Waymo plans to grow its fleet to 20,000 vehicles by the end of 2027; Waymo declined to comment on that report.

Our read

Madrid is a meaningful test for Waymo outside North America: different road rules, dense historic streets and a European regulatory system that has yet to approve fully driverless ride-hailing at scale. A 2027 target leaves Waymo a year of mapping and validation. The milestones to watch are a formal driverless permit and the first public riders, neither of which has a firm date yet.