Waymo Is Coming to Singapore Just as Grab Accelerates Its AV Push

Waymo is heading to Singapore, giving the city-state another autonomous-vehicle operator as homegrown ride-hailing major Grab prepares a much bigger push into driverless mobility.

The Alphabet-backed company plans to bring its first fleet of all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles to Singapore over the next few months, before beginning a readiness phase in 2027 in which trained specialists will drive the vehicles manually to adapt its autonomous-driving system to local roads and weather. Waymo is targeting a fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in 2028, booked through its own app. Singapore marks its first announced move into Southeast Asia.

The timing is significant. Grab said on September 14 that it would expand its Singapore autonomous fleet from 10 WeRide GXR vehicles to 50 over the next six months, broaden coverage within Punggol in the north-east region and seek regulatory approval to move into other parts of the city-state. It is also preparing an on-demand, point-to-point service, moving beyond the fixed-route shuttle model Singapore used to test autonomous passenger transport at scale.

That means Waymo will arrive in a market that is no longer simply experimenting with autonomous vehicles. Singapore is beginning to work out how they fit into everyday transport, while the companies already on the ground are trying to establish who controls the fleet, the technology and, eventually, the passenger.

Grab Has a Head Start

Grab’s current service, Ai.R, uses autonomous technology from Chinese autonomous-driving company WeRide. Public rides began in Punggol on April 1, 2026, after testing and community trials, with Grab responsible for operating the service and WeRide supplying the autonomous vehicle platform.

By September, Grab said its fleet had logged more than 110,000 km of autonomous driving in Singapore and served more than 12,000 unique riders. It is now investing in dedicated AV infrastructure, including a depot in Punggol, and training safety and remote operators as it builds local operating capacity.

The expansion is part of a much larger bet. Grab wants to deploy thousands of autonomous vehicles across Southeast Asia by 2030 under what it calls a hybrid mobility strategy, in which AVs operate alongside its existing network of human drivers. The company has also invested in WeRide and entered partnerships with other autonomous-driving groups, including May Mobility and Momenta, suggesting it does not intend to depend on a single technology provider as the market develops.

Its potential advantage is distribution. Grab wants autonomous vehicles integrated into the same platform that already matches passengers with human drivers, with its systems handling functions ranging from vehicle dispatch and routing to fleet management and customer support. Its agreement with WeRide explicitly envisages integrating the latter’s vehicles into Grab’s network.

Waymo is approaching Singapore differently, at least initially.

The company has said its commercial service will be available through the Waymo app. That makes its Singapore plan more than the arrival of another autonomous-driving technology supplier. Waymo intends to own the passenger interface and provide the technology and vehicles. But in some US markets such as Austin and Atlanta, it has integrated its vehicles into Uber’s network, showing that it can operate through either model.

Whether that eventually puts Waymo directly against Grab will depend on where both services are allowed to operate, how quickly each can scale and how Singapore shapes its commercial rules.

Grab will have a good head start, though. Its on-demand service is expected to progress towards commercial operations well before Waymo’s planned 2028 launch. But Waymo will bring far more experience running fully autonomous commercial networks, having completed more than 20 Mn fully autonomous rides globally, according to the company.

Singapore Is Building the Market while Writing the Rules

Grab will not be Waymo’s only competitor. ComfortDelGro is operating autonomous vehicles in Punggol using Chinese autonomous-driving company Pony.ai’s technology, with rides available through its Zig app. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) described Waymo as Singapore’s newest autonomous vehicle operator alongside Grab and ComfortDelGro, as the government seeks to build a broader, competitive AV ecosystem instead of relying on a single operator or technology platform.

The market remains tightly managed. Singapore began experimenting with AVs more than a decade ago, but passenger deployment on public roads has accelerated only recently. Punggol became the first residential district used for autonomous shuttle trials, while the government has said deployment will expand progressively rather than move immediately to mass adoption.

Moreover, the regulatory architecture is still evolving. In May, the ministry of transport opened consultation on a new legislative framework covering AV safety, liability, insurance and enforcement, noting that existing road traffic rules were designed around human drivers. Vehicles must pass staged deployment-readiness assessments before progressing towards passenger services and driverless operations.

Labour is another constraint on how quickly the market can move. In July, Singapore announced a transition package for taxi and private-hire drivers, developed with Grab and ComfortDelGro, as it prepares for greater AV adoption. When announcing Waymo’s entry, LTA reiterated that autonomous vehicle deployment would not be allowed to outpace the government’s ability to retrain and support affected drivers.

That measured approach gives Grab time to deepen its local operating network. It also gives Waymo a relatively controlled environment in which to internationalise a model already running at much greater scale in the US.

Singapore also has a capital connection. Temasek participated in Waymo’s $16 Bn funding round in February, which valued the company at $126 Bn post-money. Waymo and Singapore’s transport authorities have not linked that investment to the decision to enter the market, but the sovereign investor now has exposure to a company that is preparing to become part of Singapore’s transport system.

For Singapore, the next stage is less about proving that an autonomous car can navigate its roads than about determining how competing AV businesses fit into one of Asia’s most tightly organised transport networks.

For Grab, Waymo’s arrival makes that experiment considerably more consequential. Its fivefold fleet expansion now looks not only like a larger trial, but an early attempt to establish scale before one of the world’s most experienced autonomous ride-hailing operators starts taking bookings in its home market.