Waymo's Las Vegas robotaxis are queuing at public chargers, and drivers noticed

Waymo's launch post for Las Vegas was full of gambling jokes. "One thing that shouldn't be left up to chance? Road safety," it said, before inviting residents to "go all in." Three days after the service opened, some local EV drivers had a Vegas joke of their own. They say the house keeps taking the chargers.

On September 17, KTNV Channel 13 reported that some Las Vegas EV drivers are waiting more than an hour because Waymo robotaxis are occupying public plugs. The complaints center on an Electrify America station off Flamingo Road and Maryland Parkway, east of the Strip.

Rideshare driver Jahmeek Williams told the station: "I think one time I waited a good hour and thirty minutes." His view was simple: "Waymos should have their own thing." Sharon McWilliams, who also drives for ride-hail apps, asked "why aren't they like cab companies and limo companies have their own chargers?" Her suggested fix was just as short: "They need to build their own infrastructure honestly."

Both drivers are asking the same thing: should a commercial fleet charge from the same small pool of public stalls as an owner topping up on the way home?

Waymo did not deny using public chargers. A spokesperson told KTNV that the company has a depot with its own charging, also uses publicly available infrastructure, and tries to "limit and stagger" that use. The spokesperson said Waymo builds its own charging as its operations in a city mature and then prioritizes those dedicated sites. The company also said that when one of its cars is being driven or supervised by a human specialist, that person may choose to charge on the road while taking a break.

That last point probably explains more than it first seems to. A robotaxi that is fully driverless is sent back to the depot by software. A car driven by a Waymo employee during testing or mapping gets charged the way anyone's car does: at the nearest fast charger, during the coffee break.

Waymo only opened to public riders in Las Vegas on September 14, after months of testing. It says more than 100,000 people signed up to express interest. The service covers a zone of nearly 24 square miles, from Boulder Junction up the Strip to Sahara Avenue, and out to parts of Spring Valley and Winchester. Las Vegas joins Denver and San Diego as the first cities where most of Waymo's fleet is the Ojai, the electric minivan that carries its sixth-generation driving system.

Waymo isn't the only robotaxi operator in town. Zoox launched in Las Vegas a year earlier. Engadget reported that the Nevada Transportation Authority approved Waymo for an autonomous vehicle network company permit last month, and gave the same approval to Tesla and Uber. Several electric robotaxi operators now have approval to work in the same city.

A write-up in Yahoo Autos pointed out that the KTNV report did not establish how often Waymo cars use the Flamingo station, or how much of any particular wait was caused by robotaxis rather than ordinary demand or broken stalls. Anyone who has queued at a four-stall site with one dead dispenser knows that a queue doesn't need a robot to form.

There is also a reasonable argument on the fleet's side. Yahoo summarized a Forbes column by robocar analyst Brad Templeton, published before the Vegas launch, which argued that fleet vehicles have as much right to public chargers as any other paying customer. Templeton pointed to a tradeoff: sending robotaxis to a distant depot keeps public stalls free, but it adds empty miles, and new depots take time because of the electrical service work they require. Sending a car across town to avoid a public charger has its own costs.

McWilliams says the city's cab and limo companies run their own chargers. A company that plans a large robotaxi fleet in a city has every reason to do the same, and Waymo says that is its long-term approach. The question is how long the early phase lasts, while public stations fill the gap.

For drivers at Flamingo and Maryland, a practical answer would help more than a policy paper: clear information on how many cars are using public sites, at what times, and when the dedicated capacity will be ready. Until Waymo gives those figures, drivers with a phone camera will keep counting robotaxis in the queue.

Photo: a Waymo Jaguar I-Pace robotaxi in San Francisco, by Stephen Leonardi via Pexels. Most of the Las Vegas fleet is Waymo's newer Ojai.