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The driverless ride-hailing company Waymo is expanding its service area for select customers to freeways and across a 260-square-mile region covering the entire Peninsula, the company announced Wednesday.
The increased service area became available to some riders starting Nov. 12, and the company will continue to roll out services to more customers in the coming weeks, Waymo said. The expanded coverage area now includes San José Mineta International Airport (SJC), giving travelers an additional transportation option to and from the airport. The company also expanded freeway access in Phoenix and Los Angeles and is growing its capacity in Austin and Atlanta.
Waymo has steadily increased its service coverage in Silicon Valley in the last year. In March, the company began offering rides to select customers in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and parts of Sunnyvale. In June, the company expanded its coverage area further south to additional parts of Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Los Altos Hills, though rides were still only available to a subset of customers.
Mountain View Chief Communications Officer Lenka Wright said she was encouraged by the growth of the autonomous driving company, which is headquartered in Mountain View.
“Waymo’s timing for expanding autonomous taxi rides to freeways in the Bay Area, including to and from Mineta San Jose International Airport, is noteworthy, especially with thousands of visitors expected to fly here for major sporting events like Super Bowl LX and FIFA World Cup games in 2026,” Wright wrote in an email.
The Alphabet-owned company said they have conducted extensive safety testing. In the company’s September impact report, it said its driverless vehicles were 91% less likely to cause a car crash resulting in serious injuries than human drivers.
“Before taking any step to expand our capabilities or service area, we do extensive testing in simulation, on closed-courses, and in the real world,” Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli previously told this publication. “We follow a playbook where we continuously scale incrementally and work towards offering a great service for riders which involves preparing our vehicles and infrastructure.”
Still, the company has faced some controversy for some safety incidents in the last few years, including the recent death of a neighborhood cat in San Francisco that was run over by a Waymo, resulting in an outpouring of negative feelings toward the autonomous vehicles. Waymo also recalled 1,200 self-driving cars this year with faulty software that increased the likelihood of crashes into road barriers.
Despite these issues, Menlo Park’s Public Engagement Manager, Kendra Calvert, said Waymo has continually communicated with the city of Menlo Park on its expansion throughout San Mateo County and noted that the Menlo Park Police department will follow the same safety protocols as it does with all vehicular traffic. Redwood City Communications Manager Nick Mathiowdis also said the city focuses on public safety and on ensuring autonomous vehicle operators comply with traffic laws.
“Over the past year, Waymo has provided training sessions for our Police and Fire personnel on how the vehicles operate and what first responders should expect if an incident occurs,” Mathiowdis wrote in an email. “They have also met with our Engineering and Transportation Department to discuss testing, routing, and how the vehicles use local streets.”
