Waymo robotaxis in Madrid: testing now, passengers in 2027

September 13, 2026 · updated on October 21, 2026 · 7 min read · Taxio Team

Sensors and cameras on the roof of a Waymo self-driving car — Photo: Leo_Visions / Unsplash

In short: Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Alphabet (Google's parent), now has its DGT permit, and its first Jaguar I-PACE cars are starting to drive around Madrid city, Alcobendas and Getafe, day and night, with a mandatory safety specialist at the wheel. The goal is to carry passengers in 2027. But there is a detail almost no headline mentions: that permit is technical and does not authorise charging for a ride.

What is starting now in Madrid, Alcobendas and Getafe

Waymo holds the DGT's authorisation for public-road testing under Instrucción VEH 2025/07. The cars will carry red test plates and, as La Gaceta del Taxi specifies, they will mandatorily have safety specialists at the wheel.

The rollout goes in phases, and it is worth not skipping them:

Phase 1: the vehicles drive with professionals at the controls, mapping the streets and collecting data on the urban environment.
Phase 2: autonomous-mode testing, with a specialist trained by the company supervising from the driver's seat.
Phase 3, in 2027: the driver's seat is left empty and passenger service opens, provided the necessary authorisations arrive first.

The test area does not cover the whole Madrid region, but it does not stay inside the M-30 ring road either, according to Xataka. Waymo has not yet specified which area it will cover once the service is commercial.

The DGT permit does not authorise charging for a ride

Here is the nuance that makes this more than a technology announcement, and both Xataka and La Gaceta del Taxi flag it independently. The DGT authorisation is technical: it covers industrial trials and road safety. Charging a passenger for a ride takes something else, a passenger transport authorisation: a taxi licence or a VTC permit.

And that is where the unresolved contradiction appears. The regional government of Madrid has repeated that the arrival of autonomous vehicles will not mean the issuing of new taxi licences or the granting of new VTC authorisations. If that holds and there is still commercial service in 2027, only two roads are left: robotaxis operating on titles that already exist (buying or renting authorisations on the market) or the rules changing. There is no third way, and neither has been announced.

This is exactly the ground taxis and platforms have been fighting over for more than ten years, and the same proportionality test that shaped the Supreme Court ruling on the 1 VTC per 30 taxis limit and Brussels' warning to the Catalan taxi law. The technology is ahead of the administrative title, not the other way round.

How many cars it will be (and why nobody gives the figure)

Waymo talks about a small fleet at the start, growing as technical validation advances, and begins with electric Jaguar I-PACE cars. Neither Xataka nor Motor16 publishes a number for Madrid.

Some outlets put the DGT authorisation at 16 vehicles for an SAE level 4 service, but that figure comes from a single source: neither Waymo nor the rest of the coverage confirms it, which is why we are not treating it as fact. When someone gives you a hard number of robotaxis in Madrid, it is worth asking where it comes from.

What was already under way: Uber's 20 robotaxis

Waymo is not the first. In September the DGT granted Uber the first authorisation in Spain for level-4 autonomous cars, which it will run with WeRide and Avomo, according to La Gaceta del Taxi: 20 vehicles in the initial phase, with a specialist on board, operating before the end of 2026.

Outside Spain, Waymo's scale is another matter. On 1 September it opened to the public in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, and with that it now operates in 14 US cities with more than 4,000 vehicles, according to TechCrunch. Its other announced European destinations are London and Munich.

What it means for taxi drivers

First, the scale is still tiny. A small test fleet, plus Uber's 20 cars, against the 59,475 taxi licences in Spain and the 15,804 in the Madrid region. In October 2026 this changes nobody's working day.

Second, what matters is the timetable of the licence, not of the car. The hard part of 2027 is not the empty seat: it is where the authorisation to charge comes from. If news ever reaches you that Madrid is creating new authorisations, or that robotaxis may be run on existing titles, that will be the day that matters.

Third, the taxi sector is at the table. In August the DGT, the regional governments, platforms such as Uber, Waymo, Bolt and Free Now and representatives of the sector presented a first ten-point charter to order the arrival of driverless cars, as Motor16 and La Revista del Taxi reported. They are asking for a single law with central authority, and one of the ten points is a fair transition, with adaptation periods and professional retraining for taxi and private-hire drivers.

And fourth, the heart of it is economic. What a robotaxi removes from the equation is the cost of the driver. So more than the technology, what will matter is how much each hour of a taxi with a person at the wheel really returns.

How Taxio handles this

Taxio cannot predict what will happen with robotaxis, and it is not going to try. What it does do is tell you what each hour actually leaves you: you record every ride with its platform's commission and your expenses, and you see your real average of euros per hour and your net, not your gross. Whatever competition arrives, that is the number decisions get made on.

Frequently asked questions about Waymo's robotaxis in Madrid

When do Waymo's robotaxis arrive in Madrid?

Waymo's first Jaguar I-PACE cars start driving around Madrid city, Alcobendas and Getafe in October 2026, in a testing phase and with a mandatory safety specialist at the wheel. Waymo expects to carry its first users in 2027, with no specific date.

Can you already book a Waymo robotaxi in Madrid?

No. What Waymo holds is the DGT's permit for public-road testing under Instrucción VEH 2025/07, and that permit is technical: it does not allow charging for a ride or offering the service to the public.

How many robotaxis will Waymo have in Madrid?

Waymo has not published the figure: it describes a small fleet at the start that will grow as technical validation advances. Some outlets put the DGT authorisation at 16 vehicles, but neither Waymo nor the other sources consulted confirm it.

What authorisation would Waymo need to charge in 2027?

A passenger transport authorisation, meaning a taxi licence or a VTC permit. And that is the knot: the regional government of Madrid keeps repeating that the arrival of autonomous vehicles will not mean new taxi licences or new VTC authorisations.

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