Waymo Expands Fully Driverless Robotaxi Service Across All of San Francisco
Waymo opens its autonomous ride-hailing service to tens of thousands of users across the entire city of San Francisco. The company continues to scale responsibly by adding riders from a massive waitlist.
Waymo expands its fully autonomous robotaxi service to tens of thousands of users across all of San Francisco. Previously, only test riders access the dense northeast corner of the city, including Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown, but now all current Waymo One users enjoy city-wide coverage spanning 47 square miles.
The company scales this expansion responsibly by pulling new riders from a waitlist that holds 100,000 people. While this milestone represents a major leap forward, the service remains exclusive to approved users rather than the general public as Waymo prioritizes service quality and a good user experience.
This achievement marks a significant moment for a project that originates as the Google self-driving car project in 2009. Despite facing challenges like aggressive urban drivers and steep hills, Waymo overcomes early restrictions to operate without safety drivers, though the expansion follows recent controversies involving traffic disruptions and high-profile incidents involving competitor Cruise.