Data
Total monthly distance traveled by passengers in California’s driverless taxis
What you should know about this indicator
- This measures how far people have traveled in paid robotaxi trips that are approved to operate in California.
- The calculation multiplies passengers by distance. So if 3 people share a 5-mile ride, that's 15 passenger-miles. For rides where passengers get in or out partway, each part of the trip is counted based on how many people were actually in the car.
- Excludes empty cars driving between pickups, test rides, and any non-passenger travel.
- Originally both Cruise and Waymo reported this data. Cruise stopped operating in late 2023 due to safety and regulatory issues. From 2024 onward, Waymo is the only company authorized to operate paid robotaxi services in California and the sole reporter of this data.
Total monthly distance traveled by passengers in California’s driverless taxis
The total distance that passengers travel each month in California’s paid driverless taxi services, calculated by summing, across all trips, the number of passengers multiplied by the miles each one travels.
Source
California Public Utilities Commission (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
August 25, 2025
Next expected update
August 2026
Unit
miles
What you should know about this indicator
- This measures how far people have traveled in paid robotaxi trips that are approved to operate in California.
- The calculation multiplies passengers by distance. So if 3 people share a 5-mile ride, that's 15 passenger-miles. For rides where passengers get in or out partway, each part of the trip is counted based on how many people were actually in the car.
- Excludes empty cars driving between pickups, test rides, and any non-passenger travel.
- Originally both Cruise and Waymo reported this data. Cruise stopped operating in late 2023 due to safety and regulatory issues. From 2024 onward, Waymo is the only company authorized to operate paid robotaxi services in California and the sole reporter of this data.
Total monthly distance traveled by passengers in California’s driverless taxis
The total distance that passengers travel each month in California’s paid driverless taxi services, calculated by summing, across all trips, the number of passengers multiplied by the miles each one travels.
Source
California Public Utilities Commission (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
August 25, 2025
Next expected update
August 2026
Unit
miles
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
How we process data at Our World in Data
All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.
At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.
Notes on our processing step for this indicator
We combined trip data from all approved robotaxi companies in California. Both Cruise and Waymo are included until September 2024. After that, only Waymo remains, as Cruise ended its service.
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Citations
How to cite this page
To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: Total monthly distance traveled by passengers in California’s driverless taxis”, part of the following publication: Charlie Giattino, Edouard Mathieu, Veronika Samborska, and Max Roser (2023) - “Artificial Intelligence”. Data adapted from California Public Utilities Commission. Retrieved from https://auto-epoch.owid.pages.dev:8789/20250910-151149/grapher/passenger-miles-traveled-self-driving-taxis.html [online resource] (archived on September 10, 2025).How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
California Public Utilities Commission (2025) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
California Public Utilities Commission (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Total monthly distance traveled by passengers in California’s driverless taxis” [dataset]. California Public Utilities Commission, “CPUC AV Passenger Service Deployment programs - Quarterly Reports” [original data]. Retrieved November 1, 2025 from https://auto-epoch.owid.pages.dev:8789/20250910-151149/grapher/passenger-miles-traveled-self-driving-taxis.html (archived on September 10, 2025).