05/20/2026
If you have been downtown lately, you may have noticed something unusual parked along North Wells or rolling through the Loop: a white Jaguar SUV with a spinning sensor on the roof and the word Waymo on the door. Google’s self-driving car company has started mapping and testing its vehicles on Chicago streets. For now, there is still a human behind the wheel, but the company’s goal is clear. It wants to run fully driverless taxis here, the same way it already does in Phoenix, San Francisco, Austin, and a handful of other warm-weather cities.
Whether that actually happens depends on Springfield, and on a conversation that is only just getting started.
If you have been downtown lately, you may have noticed a white Jaguar SUV with a spinning sensor on the roof and the word Waymo on the door. For now, there is still a human behind the wheel, but the company’s goal is clear. It wants to run fully driverless taxis here, the same way it already does ...