Waymo offers new incentives for commuters on public transit

Waymo customers in San Francisco will soon be able to earn credit toward future rides when they use one of the robotaxis to connect to public transit.

Alphabet-owned Waymo introduced its transit rewards program Tuesday. It will start in Northern California and expand to other cities. Waymo employees will be the first to access the program.

To earn ride credit, or Waymo Cash, customers will have to link their Visa card to the Waymo app and use it to take an autonomous trip and public transit within two hours of each other. For each connected trip on public transit, riders will earn $2.85 in Waymo Cash, which is the cost of transit fare in San Francisco.

“Access to transit is really something that transit agencies need to put focus on,” said Henriette Cornet, co-director of the Autonomous Vehicles and the City Initiative at the University of San Francisco, who has done research on autonomy and public transit. “In the Bay Area, rail is solid and we have very good bus rides, but for some neighborhoods it’s very hard to access that first point of transit.”

The rewards program applies to all 27 Bay Area transit agencies that accept Visa tap-to-pay. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie launched a tap-to-pay option throughout the Muni transit system last year.

“Public transit networks and shared autonomous vehicles are part of a complementary mobility ecosystem,” Waymo said in its announcement.

The move to incentivize the use of public transit could broaden the appeal of Mountain View-based Waymo, which has been offering rides to the public in San Francisco since 2024.

The white Jaguar I-Paces, equipped with sensors and cameras, have become a common site on the hilly streets of the city and beyond.

Waymo also recently launched its newest vehicle, a blue van dubbed the Ojai.

The transit rewards program also helps position Waymo as a collaborator with public transit rather than a competitor.

“It’s a way for them to to show a willingness to integrate within cities and to be more complementary rather than replacing,” Cornet said.

It could help the company’s reputation in the city, which took a hit after a robotaxi struck and killed a neighborhood cat last year.

Local officials have also raised concerns about Waymo affecting the availability of human driver jobs.

“San José has always believed innovation should make everyday life work better,” said San José Mayor Matt Mahan in a statement. “This partnership does exactly that by using new technology to strengthen public transit, not replace it, making regional travel more seamless and giving people more ways to get where they need to go.”

According to Waymo, recent surveys show that more than 50% of Waymo customers use public transit in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

“We’re proud to invest directly in this connectivity to make everyday commutes easier and more affordable,” the company said.