Will Driverless Taxis Come to Potsdam, NY?

Taxi Zero owner, John Meyers, explores the question about driverless taxis coming to Potsdam, NY, his hometown, anytime soon. As of August 2025, the Waymo taxi has been deployed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Phoenix. Amazon’s Zoox is also starting to see some action in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Tesla has operational Model Y robotaxis in Austin and San Francisco with its own app that is separate from other rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft. Meanwhile, Uber is collaborating with Waymo to use its platform for the Waymo riderless taxis.

How long before these driverless taxi platforms come to St. Lawrence County and towns like Massena, NY, Ogdensburg, NY, Canton, NY and Potsdam, NY? Tesla has announced that it seeking to do a pilot program in NYC beginning as soon as the permits are in place. That would place the driverless taxi industry in our own state. From there, it will still take some time for the automated taxi test driving season (where a driver still has to be present in the car) until the fully autonomous taxi is allowed to operate.

After that, we may see adoption of the driverless taxi come to Potsdam, NY and the surrounding communities in St. Lawrence and Jefferson Counties. It is still not known how the border crossing will impact the driverless taxi industry. And the winters of northern New York are still untested with the fully automated driverless technology. It may still be more than a few years before the automated fully driverless taxi model reaches St. Lawrence county.