The first Jaguar I-PACE cars arrive in the coming months, 2027 is a readiness phase that starts with manual driving, and the commercial service is planned for 2028. Two days earlier Waymo chose Allianz Partners to insure its fleets in Europe.
- Singapore: a partnership with the Ministry of Transport and the Land Transport Authority.
- Europe: Allianz Partners will support the fleets with insurance, claims handling and joint safety research, starting with London and Munich.
- The safety figures in this week's announcements are given in four different ways.
One week, four directions in Waymo's announcements: Las Vegas and Tokyo on Monday, Europe through the insurer on Tuesday, Singapore on Thursday.
Singapore is the most distant of them, and not only on the map.
Why manual driving first
Singapore has monsoons, dense urban streets and a road network the car has never driven. Waymo sets aside 2027 for a readiness phase that starts with manual driving before it takes on a rider. It is slow and it is right.
The insurance in Europe is the other half of the same thought. A robotaxi that crashes in London is not a technical but a legal question: who pays, under which law and within how many days. Waymo is sorting out that answer before it has carried its first rider there.
And a note on the numbers. In this week's announcements safety is given in four ways: 94 per cent fewer serious injury crashes in Vegas, 94 per cent fewer injury crashes in the Singapore announcement, 16 times fewer serious injury crashes with Allianz, and over 15 times safer with Tokyo. All of them come from Waymo's own data. They agree in direction, not in meaning, and it is worth knowing that before you quote them.