Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent Alphabet, is returning to New York City. But it won’t be offering rides to the paying public yet, as it currently does in four other cities.

Waymo added that the "facility's flexible design" will allow it to integrate its upcoming sixth-generation self-driving technology into new vehicles, starting with the all-electric Zeekr RT.

Waymo wants to bring driverless cars to NYC Waymo, Google's self-driving car division, wants to return to New York City. "New York, we're coming back to the Big Apple next month!

That said, not every car has a driver anymore. Waymo and other self-driving car services use advanced sensory equipment and AI to make decisions on the go and obey the rules of the road.

Economic pressures also weigh heavily on Waymo’s future. With their cutting-edge AI technologies and sensors, each Waymo car is eye-poppingly expensive: more than $120,000, analysts estimate.

Waymo has grown massively since its creation in 2009 as Google’s Self-Driving Car Project. Waymo drove vehicles manually through Manhattan in 2021 to map the city’s streets. Courtesy of Waymo ...

Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and grew out of the Google Self-Driving Car project that began in 2009. It launched its robotaxi business in 2020 in limited markets ...

Teslas probably cost 25% or 20% of what a Waymo costs and made in very high volume.” Ford has said it plans to partner with a self-driving software company once the technology is further along.

Examining the safety of self-driving technology Waymo has announced plans to test self-driving cars in 10 more U.S. cities, including San Diego and Las Vegas, in 2025.

Uber is increasingly grappling with competition from self-driving taxi services like Waymo. Now the ride-hailing giant is taking more action to deal with that threat.