# Waymo surpasses 1 million monthly rides in California

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2025-11-27

waymo, california, ride-hailing, uber, lyft

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/a082e7ddef2a1ba3a0c991bbf29993dcd3d39d0d96cc6581c39e5ffd9d3ded22.png)

September 2025 was a milestone month for Waymo in California: It reached 1,000,000 paid driverless rides. This represents a year-over-year increase of ~182%, which is a pretty good sign that the technology works and that customers like it.

(Note: The dramatic falloff in rides in June 2025 was because of anti-ICE protests and vandalism taking place in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The company decided to temporarily suspend operations.)

This is still a small fraction of the traditional ride-hailing market, though. According to the California Public Utilities Commission, Uber and Lyft combined complete somewhere around 300-320 million passenger trips per year in the state. That averages out to roughly 25-27 million trips per month for context.

Still, [the writing is on the wall](https://brandondonnelly.com/the-self-driving-paradox-walkable-cities-or-super-sprawl). AV usage is growing rapidly and I think it's only a matter of time until it supplants traditional ride-hailing, and perhaps even car ownership.

_Chart via_ [_Charlie Bilello_](https://bilello.blog)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/waymo-surpasses-1-million-monthly-rides-in-california)*