Waymo’s latest expansion strategy: teenagers

Waymo will allow teenagers as young as 13 to use its robotaxi service in Nashville as the Alphabet-owned company looks to scale its business by reaching a new group of riders.

Nashville is the second city to offer Waymo teen accounts; the company kicked off its teen account program in Phoenix last year. And more cities are likely to follow, according to the company.

A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch that its expansion to Nashville will be the “first of many” teen launches across multiple markets that use the Waymo app in the coming months. The spokesperson said it will offer teen accounts in cities where its operations are mature and local regulations allow it.

Nashville is a relatively new market for Waymo, although it has support from local leaders to offer the service to teens. The company launched its service in a 50-square-mile area of Nashville in April 2026, and earlier this month, its robotaxis became available on the Lyft app.

Waymo’s ridership has skyrocketed over the past two years — a trajectory largely driven by the rapid succession of new markets. Paid robotaxi trips grew tenfold from 50,000 per week in May 2024 to more than half-a-million per week earlier this year. Over that same time span, Waymo has launched robotaxi services in a dozen cities. In the past month alone, the company opened robotaxi services in Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Tampa.

The company’s introduction of teen accounts provides another means of growth — this one targeted at a demographic that relies on parents or public transit to get to school, work, or activities.

There are few limits to the service. The teen account must be connected to a parent or guardian, but once activated, teens can hail autonomous rides anywhere in Waymo’s service area in Nashville — and bring their friends along. Waymo told TechCrunch that teen account holders can bring up to three guests ages 13 to 17. The company didn’t share how these ages would be verified.

That kind of access could certainly invite chaos — it’s not hard to imagine four 16 year-old kids unleashed in a robotaxi. But it may also be part of the appeal for parents who would rather their kids pile into a Waymo than in a vehicle driven by a teenager.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.

You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.