Waymo’s latest expansion strategy: teenagers

Waymo has expanded its teen account program to Nashville, permitting users aged 13 to 17 to hail robotaxi rides in the city’s Waymo service area. This rollout follows the company’s initial teen accounts in Phoenix and comes as Waymo says it will introduce similar programs in additional markets where its operations are sufficiently mature and local regulations permit. In Nashville, the company began operating within a 50-square-mile zone in April 2026 and recently made its robotaxis available through the Lyft app. The teen accounts must be linked to a parent or guardian, but once activated they allow teens to request trips anywhere inside Waymo’s Nashville service area and to bring companions. Waymo told TechCrunch that teen riders may bring up to three guests aged 13 to 17, though the company did not detail how it will verify riders’ ages. The arrangement aims to provide a supervised alternative for families who otherwise rely on parents, public transit, or teen drivers for school and extracurricular travel. Waymo’s push to add younger riders comes amid a rapid expansion of its paid robotaxi service. The company reported that weekly paid trips rose from about 50,000 in May 2024 to more than 500,000 earlier in 2026, a tenfold increase driven by launches in roughly a dozen cities. In the month before the Nashville teen-account announcement, Waymo opened services in Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Tampa as part of that rollout. Company spokespeople told TechCrunch the Nashville teen launch is intended as the first of many similar introductions across multiple markets in the coming months, contingent on operational readiness and local rules. The program extends Waymo’s routes to a demographic that frequently depends on others for mobility, while also prompting discussions about supervision, safety, and how companies will check ages and manage group rides by unaccompanied minors.