Waymo will now pick up unaccompanied teenagers in Nashville.
The company is opening its driverless ride service to riders aged 13 to 17 in Nashville, making it the second city where Waymo has extended access to minors. That expands the pool of eligible riders beyond adults with a smartphone and a credit card. Waymo hasn't detailed how it verifies age, secures parental consent, or monitors underage riders once they're in the car. The move folds a new age bracket into Waymo's existing robotaxi footprint rather than announcing a separate product or launching a new market.
Teenagers are a built-in market for any transportation company: they need rides constantly, can't legally drive themselves, and currently depend on parents or ride-hailing apps to get around. But putting a minor alone in a car with no human driver present is a different liability question than the teen accounts Uber and Lyft already offer, which still put an adult behind the wheel. How Waymo handles consent, in-car monitoring, and emergency response for underage riders will decide whether this becomes a real alternative to the family carpool.
Expect this rollout to spread to more cities quietly, well before Waymo says much publicly about how it's actually supervising the kids in the back seat.