A driverless taxi may navigate city streets without anyone behind the wheel, but keeping an entire robotaxi network moving still requires an enormous amount of human planning, physical infrastructure and operational discipline. Waymo is turning to one of Canada’s largest fleet specialists to handle that challenge.
Toronto-based Element Fleet Management has signed a strategic, multi-year partnership with Waymo to support the deployment and operation of autonomous vehicle fleets. The collaboration will begin in San Diego before expanding into additional markets. Element will oversee crucial functions including charging, maintenance coordination, vehicle lifecycle management and fleet optimization, while Waymo remains responsible for the performance and validation of its autonomous-driving system. The agreement places a major Canadian company behind one of the world’s fastest-growing driverless transportation networks.
A Canadian Fleet Powerhouse Moves Into Robotaxis
Element Fleet Management is not a consumer-facing name in the same way as Waymo, Uber or Tesla, but it operates at a scale that makes it a significant force in global transportation. Headquartered in Toronto and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Element describes itself as the world’s largest publicly traded company focused exclusively on automotive fleet management. It manages more than 1.5 million vehicles globally, serving commercial businesses, governments and other organizations that depend on reliable transportation.
That experience is now being applied to a considerably different type of fleet. Instead of supporting sales representatives, utility crews or delivery drivers, Element will help manage vehicles expected to operate for much of the day without an onboard driver. The company generated approximately $1.2 billion in net revenue during 2025, a 9% increase from the previous year. Its size gives Waymo access to established financing capabilities, supplier relationships, maintenance expertise and operational systems rather than requiring the autonomous-driving company to build every support function internally.
What Element Will Actually Do for Waymo
Element’s responsibilities extend well beyond purchasing vehicles or arranging leases. Under the partnership, the company will provide end-to-end operational services through its Element Mobility division. Those services will include managing vehicles throughout their working lives, coordinating maintenance, developing charging infrastructure, overseeing energy use and optimizing fleet performance. The objective is to keep as many robotaxis as possible charged, clean, maintained and available for passenger service.
Consider what happens when a conventional taxi develops a warning light or suffers a damaged tire. The driver can report the problem and bring the vehicle to a garage. A driverless fleet requires systems that can identify issues, remove affected vehicles from service, arrange repairs and return them to the road without depending on an individual driver to manage the process. Element’s digital tools can also help determine when vehicles should charge, which units should be dispatched and how maintenance can be scheduled without unnecessarily reducing passenger capacity. Waymo will continue operating its passenger service and controlling the Waymo Driver, including its technical validation and driving performance.
San Diego Will Be the First Test
The partnership will begin with an initial deployment in San Diego, giving Element and Waymo a large and complex transportation market in which to test their operating model. Waymo previously identified San Diego as one of the cities where it planned to introduce commercial robotaxi service during 2026. The company has been working with local officials and emergency responders while preparing for deployment, a process that typically includes mapping, supervised testing and a gradual transition to fully autonomous rides.
San Diego also gives Waymo an opportunity to expand its California footprint beyond Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. However, placing vehicles on California roads involves more than demonstrating that the technology works. The California Department of Motor Vehicles regulates autonomous vehicle testing and deployment, while the California Public Utilities Commission oversees autonomous passenger services. Companies offering paid driverless rides must hold the appropriate authorizations and submit passenger-safety and operational information. Element can manage physical fleet readiness, but regulatory permission, geographic operating limits and Waymo’s technical rollout will ultimately determine how quickly the San Diego service grows.
The Hardest Part of Robotaxis May Be Everything Around the Car
Autonomous-driving software receives most of the public attention, yet large-scale robotaxi service also depends on ordinary operational tasks. Vehicles must be inspected, cleaned, charged, repaired, registered and repositioned. Charging stations need sufficient electrical capacity, replacement parts must be available and damaged or malfunctioning vehicles must be removed quickly. Even a highly capable autonomous system cannot generate revenue when its vehicle is sitting at a depot with a depleted battery or waiting for a maintenance appointment.
Waymo has already shown that it views outside operational partners as an important part of its growth strategy. The company has worked with Moove on fleet operations and charging infrastructure in markets including Phoenix, Miami and London. It has also partnered with ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft in selected cities. The Element agreement adds another large-scale operator to that network. It suggests Waymo is developing a flexible expansion model in which it can retain control of the Waymo Driver and, in some markets, the passenger experience, while experienced partners handle capital-intensive and locally complicated fleet operations.
Waymo Is Expanding at a Rapid Pace
The Element partnership arrives as Waymo moves from limited regional service toward a much broader transportation network. The company reported in June 2026 that its fully autonomous service had completed more than 20 million passenger trips across 10 cities. Its vehicles had travelled more than 200 million fully autonomous miles on public roads, with tens of billions of additional miles completed in simulation. Waymo has also said it is providing more than 500,000 trips per week.
That growth creates a different operational challenge from proving that a small number of vehicles can drive safely in a controlled area. Hundreds or thousands of vehicles must be integrated, inspected and dispatched consistently across markets with different traffic patterns, regulations, climates and energy costs. Waymo has invested in a Metro Phoenix manufacturing facility with Magna to accelerate the integration of autonomous-driving equipment into vehicles. New models, including the purpose-built Ojai and modified Hyundai Ioniq 5, are expected to broaden the fleet. Element’s role begins after that technology leaves the factory, helping turn sophisticated vehicles into a dependable daily transportation service.
Safety Progress Comes With Continuing Scrutiny
Waymo’s safety data is a central part of its case for expansion. A 2025 study examining 56.7 million rider-only miles found statistically significant reductions in injury-reported, airbag-deployment and suspected serious-injury crashes compared with human-driver benchmarks adjusted for similar roads and locations. The study reported a 96% reduction in injury-involving intersection crashes. Waymo later said an analysis covering more than 170 million fully autonomous miles showed 92% fewer serious-or-fatal-injury crashes and 82% fewer injury-causing crashes than comparable human driving.
Those findings do not eliminate the need for oversight. Waymo has faced federal investigations and software recalls, including a recall affecting more than 3,000 vehicles after incidents involving stopped school buses. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires companies to report qualifying crashes involving automated-driving systems and can investigate potential defects. This makes Element’s maintenance and operational responsibilities particularly important, but it does not transfer responsibility for autonomous-driving decisions away from Waymo. Fleet uptime cannot come at the expense of safety, and regulators, researchers and communities will continue examining how the vehicles behave in unusual real-world situations.
The Deal Fits Element’s Technology Strategy
The Waymo partnership is not an isolated move for Element. The company has spent several years expanding beyond conventional leasing and fleet administration into software-driven mobility. It acquired Autofleet in October 2024, gaining a platform designed to help mobility operators manage, route and optimize vehicles. Element later acquired connected-payment company Car IQ for approximately $80 million, adding technology that allows vehicles to authenticate themselves and complete certain transactions without traditional fuel cards or driver identification numbers.
Those investments help explain why Waymo selected Element for an autonomous fleet rather than treating it simply as a financing provider. Robotaxi operations generate continuous streams of information about charging, location, maintenance, utilization and operating costs. Combining that data with optimization software can help determine which vehicle should serve a particular area, when it should return to a depot and how downtime can be reduced. Element has said it identified more than $1.6 billion in potential cost savings across client fleets during the previous year. Applying similar analytical capabilities to robotaxis could become a new source of growth as autonomous fleets increase in size.
Important Details Remain Undisclosed
Neither company disclosed the financial value of the agreement, the number of vehicles included in the San Diego launch or the precise timetable for expansion into additional markets. The announcement describes a multi-year partnership and confirms that other markets are expected to follow, but it does not guarantee a particular rollout volume. Public access will also depend on regulatory approvals, technical readiness, vehicle availability and the development of local charging and service infrastructure.
There is also no confirmation that Element will manage a future Waymo fleet in Canada. Waymo has explored potential Canadian expansion and has shown interest in markets including Toronto and British Columbia, but the announced Element agreement begins in the United States. Even so, the partnership is notable for Canada’s technology and transportation sectors. A Toronto-based fleet company will now help build the operational foundation for one of the most closely watched autonomous services in the world. The driver may be artificial intelligence, but scaling driverless transportation will still depend heavily on companies that understand vehicles, infrastructure and the complicated realities of keeping a fleet moving.
