Nearly a year after Waymo launched its self-driving ride-hailing service in Los Angeles, the company is ready to take on the highways.
Waymo announced Wednesday that it will begin taking customers on highways in its 120-square-mile service area in Los Angeles as well as the San Francisco Bay Area and Phoenix. The company has been conducting tests on Los Angeles highways with safety drivers since the beginning of this year.
Expanding highways could attract new customers and attract riders traveling longer distances. Waymo vehicles already transport Southern California customers through several highway-adjacent neighborhoods, including Santa Monica, Culver City and downtown Los Angeles.
“It’s taken a long time and I couldn’t be more excited to start bringing highways to our riders,” Dmitri Dolgov, co-CEO of Waymo, said at a media event. “It took time to get it right, with a focus on the security and reliability of the system. »
Highway operations are supported by robust safety protocols and the same artificial intelligence that powers Waymo’s urban driving, the company said. The AI is ready to handle the unique demands and variables of highway driving, the company said.
In its announcement, the company also said it was expanding its Bay Area coverage area to include San Jose, establishing more than 260 square miles of uninterrupted service throughout the region.
The new San José service will include curbside pickup and drop-off at San José Mineta International Airport.
The only other airport accessible via Waymo is Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Late last month, Tesla announced that its robotaxi service would expand to include the San Jose airport. Tesla launched its robotaxi in Austin, Texas, earlier this year.
Along with Zoox, an autonomous vehicle startup owned by Amazon, Tesla and Waymo are racing to put more self-driving cars on the road and prove the technology is safe and practical.
Waymo has already logged millions of miles of driverless travel in cities like Austin and Atlanta. The company announced that it will soon expand to Miami and Washington, DC.
Waymo got its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, which began in 2009 and put its first self-driving car on the road in 2015. The project was rebranded as Waymo in 2016 under Google parent company Alphabet and launched its driverless ride-hailing service known as Waymo One in 2020.
