JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In Florida, Waymo’s self-driving taxis are already operating in Miami, Tampa and, as of this week, Orlando. Now, one Jacksonville city councilman says he wants the River City to be next.
Councilman Rory Diamond told News4JAX he plans to introduce legislation within the next month to pave the way for autonomous robotaxis — like those operated by Waymo — to run on Jacksonville roads.
Diamond has long been critical of the city’s existing autonomous shuttle program, known as NAVI, pointing to its estimated multi-million dollar price tag as a key concern. He says each ride on the current system is extremely expensive compared to what privately operated robotaxis could offer.
I’m going to do everything I can to bring @Waymo to Jacksonville.
— Rory Diamond (@RoryDiamond) February 27, 2026
I’ll post every time the special interests try to stop it. https://t.co/ppzmKS3JEv
Diamond said each NAVI ride is costing the city hundreds of dollars.
“That’s insane,” Diamond said, arguing that the same money could fund tens of thousands of rides in commercially operated self-driving vehicles instead.
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He doesn’t want the city to build and operate its own self-driving system. Instead, he’d rather it focus on changing local laws and regulations to allow private companies to run robotaxis in Jacksonville — shifting the cost from taxpayers to businesses.
Diamond also insists the move would make local roads safer. Florida is regularly ranked among the most dangerous states for drivers, and he believes advanced self-driving technology could help reduce crashes caused by distracted or impaired drivers.
He says he’d rather see “sophisticated machines on the street” than human drivers who might be looking at their phones, fiddling with the radio, or otherwise not paying attention.
Diamond acknowledged there are people who are uneasy about self-driving cars and don’t want to see more of them. But he says the technology is coming regardless — and with Orlando, Tampa and Miami already moving ahead, he doesn’t want Jacksonville to be left behind.
“We can absolutely do it in Jacksonville,” Diamond said, calling on Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration to support the effort. “Mayor, do it.”
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His proposed legislation, which he says should be filed in about a month, would aim to clear the way for companies like Waymo or Tesla-operated services to launch robotaxi programs in Jacksonville.
The recent move of Waymo into Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Florida, announced Tuesday, widens Waymo’s early lead in autonomous driving while rival services from Tesla and the Amazon-owned Zoox are still testing their vehicles in only a few U.S. cities.
Waymo’s robotaxis already provide more than 400,000 weekly trips in the six metropolitan areas where they have been transporting passengers: Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas.
Waymo operates its ride-hailing service through its own app in all the U.S. cities except Atlanta and Austin, where its robotaxis can only be summoned through Uber’s ride-hailing service.
The expansion into four more markets marks a significant step toward Waymo’s goal to surpass 1 million weekly paid trips by the end of 2026. Without identifying where its robotaxis will be available next, Waymo is targeting a list of eight other cities that include Las Vegas, Washington, Detroit and Boston while signaling its first overseas availability is likely to be London.
To help pay for more robotaxis, Waymo recently raised $16 billion as part of the financial infusion that puts the value of the company at $126 billion. The valuation fueled speculation that Waymo may eventually be spun off from its corporate parent Alphabet, where it began as a secret project within Google in 2009.
Although Waymo is opening up in four more cities, its robotaxis initially will only be made available to a limited number of people with its ride-hailing app in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando before the service will be available to all comers in those markets.