SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Waymo has begun rolling out freeway service across several cities, including San Francisco. The company announced Wednesday that its autonomous taxis would begin offering riders freeway trips in SF, Los Angeles and Phoenix.
As part of its expanded service, the company has also expanded its Bay Area service to San Jose with curbside access at San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC).
“Achieving fully autonomous freeway operations is a profound engineering feat — easy to conceive, yet hard to truly master,” said Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolguv. “This milestone is a powerful testament to the maturity of our operations and technology.”
Waymo’s expanded Bay Area service now includes San Francisco, San Bruno, San Mateo, San Carlos, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose. The company said its expanded service and freeway operations are “built on real-world performances and millions of miles logged on freeways, skillfully handling highway dynamics with” employees and guests riding in the vehicle.
“This experience, reinforced by comprehensive testing as well as extensive operational preparation, supports the delivery of a safe and reliable service,” Waymo said in a blog post. “We’ve also collaborated closely with safety officials, to seamlessly support this new phase of service.”
To take advantage of the new service, riders will continue to hail trips through the Waymo app and can express interest in taking a freeway ride directly through the app.
“When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, then can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” Waymo explained in a news release.