Nearly one year after Waymo launched its autonomous ride-hailing service in Los Angeles, the company is ready to take on freeways.
Waymo announced Wednesday that it would begin taking customers on freeways within its 120-square-mile service area in L.A. as well as in the San Francisco Bay Area and Phoenix. The company has been testing on L.A. freeways with safety drivers since early this year.
The expansion to freeways could attract new customers and appeal to riders going longer distances. Waymo vehicles already shuttle customers in Southern California through several freeway-adjacent neighborhoods, including Santa Monica, Culver City and downtown Los Angeles.
“This has been a long time in the making, and I could not be more excited to start bringing freeways to our riders,” said Waymo co-chief executive Dmitri Dolgov at a media event. “It took time to do it properly with a strong focus on system safety and reliability.”
Freeway operations are supported by robust safety protocols and the same artificial intelligence that powers Waymo’s urban driving, the company said. The AI is prepared to handle the unique demands and variables of highway driving, the company said.
In its announcement, the company also said it’s expanding its Bay Area coverage area to include San José, establishing more than 260 square miles of uninterrupted service across 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 the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.
Late last month, Tesla announced its robotaxi service would expand to include the San José airport. Tesla launched its robotaxi in Austin, Texas, earlier this year.
Along with Zoox, a self-driving vehicle startup owned by Amazon, Tesla and Waymo are racing to put more autonomous cars on the road and prove the technology is safe and convenient.
Waymo has already completed millions of miles of driverless trips in cities including Austin and Atlanta. The company said it isexpanding soon to Miami and Washington, D.C.
Waymo got its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, which began in 2009 and put its first autonomous car on the road in 2015. The project rebranded as Waymo in 2016 under Google’s parent company Alphabet and launched its driverless ride-hailing service known as Waymo One in 2020.
