Waymo gets OK to expand robotaxi service into more of Silicon Valley

The California Public Utilities Fee has accepted Waymo’s request to increase its business robotaxi service space, opening the door for the Alphabet firm to deliver its driverless ride-hailing autos into extra communities south of San Francisco.

The corporate stated in a submit on X the approval won’t change its plans within the close to time period. At the moment, Waymo operates a business robotaxi service in all of San Francisco in addition to components of the Peninsula. It additionally gives driverless rides to paying clients all through a number of Silicon Valley cities, together with components of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Sunnyvale. In all, the corporate’s service space is about 85 sq. miles overlaying San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

The corporate can be aiming to unlock access to the San Francisco International Airport, though these plans are on a for much longer timeline. Waymo was given permission in March to map roadways at SFO through a short lived allow. Waymo autos is not going to function autonomously within the airport; staff will manually drive the autos to map the world. However the allow indicators the start of a phased method to Waymo finally working commercially there.

Waymo gives 250,000 paid journeys every week throughout its operations, which extends to Los Angeles, Phoenix, and extra lately Austin.