Waymo Is Going to London. Alphabet Stock Rose.

London will be Waymo’s first European market. (LEON NEAL/Getty Images)

Key Points

• Waymo, Alphabet’s robo-taxi unit, will launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in London in 2026, marking its first European expansion.
• Waymo has accumulated over 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads and completed more than 10 million paid rides in the U.S.
• Alphabet shares rose 2.3% to $251.03 on Wednesday, following Waymo’s expansion news, outpacing the S&P 500’s 0.4% gain.

Self-driving cars are expanding rapidly across the nation—and now across the pond.

On Wednesday, Alphabet’s robo-taxi business Waymo announced plans to start a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in London in 2026.

Today, Waymo operates in Phoenix; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Austin, Texas; and Atlanta. It plans to add Miami in 2026 and is testing vehicles in Las Vegas and New York. London will be the first European market for the company. It has been in Tokyo for several months.

“We’re thrilled to bring the reliability, safety, and magic of Waymo to Londoners,” said Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana in a news release. “Waymo is making roads safer and transportation more accessible where we operate.”

It wasn’t that long ago that self-driving cars perpetually felt a year away. Now, Waymo’s AI-trained cars are becoming very capable drivers. In the U.S., Waymo has driven more than 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads and completed more than 10 million paid rides.

Tesla launched a robo-taxi service in Austin in June. CEO Elon Musk hoped to have Tesla robo-taxis covering half the U.S. population by the end of the year, pending regulatory approvals. That is looking aspirational; Tesla robo-taxis are still only in Austin.

As cars get better at driving themselves, they have the potential to “wreck” the traditional auto business, wrote Melius analyst Rob Wertheimer in a recent report. Cheap, ubiquitous robo-taxis might eliminate the need for a second family car.

That is something investors will have to worry about down the road. They will have to get used to seeing robo-taxis in more cities before then.

Waymo isn’t publicly traded, and Alphabet stock doesn’t often move significantly on news about Waymo. Alphabet shares jumped on Wednesday, however, up 2.3%, closing at $251.03. The S&P 500 added 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished just into the red.

Coming into Wednesday trading, Alphabet stock was up 30% year to date and 48% over the past 12 months.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com