Waymo Opens Its Self-Driving Cab Services to Everyone in San Francisco

• Waymo has announced that its automatic cab services are now available to everyone in San Francisco.
• Although the company has been operating in the city for years, it was available only to a small number of people. That changes now.
• According to Waymo, a massive 300,000 people have already signed up for the waitlist.

Through a blog post on Tuesday (June 25), popular self-driving ride-hailing company Waymo announced that its service, Waymo One, is now available to everyone in San Francisco.

Waymo has been operating in San Francisco for years now, completing tens of thousands of trips every week. However, up until now, it was only available to a limited number of users. It was gradually expanding its reach, and it's now open to all.

Waymo's blog outlines that nearly 300,000 people have already signed up for the waitlist. This is more than a quarter of the city's population.

Talking about the expansion, Waymo said that its goal is to grow gradually and responsibly.

We work closely with city and state officials, first responders, and advocates for road safety to ensure our service helps local communities gain access to reliable, safe, environmentally friendly transportation and has a positive impact on mobility." - Waymo

Apart from San Francisco, the only other place where Waymo operates at such a scale is Phoenix, which had a similar large-scale rollout in 2020. Other than that, Waymo operates in a limited capacity in Los Angeles, Texas, and Austin.

About Waymo

Waymo is certainly not a new name, especially for folks around the above-mentioned areas. Waymo was founded in 2009 and has since then completed 20 million fully autonomous miles and nearly two million paid ride-hail trips.

In San Francisco alone, Waymo had garnered 3.8 million rider-only miles by the end of March 2024. It's well worth noting that Waymo's commercial operations began only in August 2023, after a long period of testing.

Self-driving cars are not exactly a people's favorite. There have been quite a few instances of collisions that have made people wary of this technology.

Companies like Tesla, which is one of the biggest names in the self-driving industry, have gotten in trouble with the NHTSA several times over its faulty car design.

Waymo's Promise

Alphabet's Waymo looks different than its rivals. It has not only suffered fewer controversies but has also been very active in collaborating with the NHTSA and local first responders in responsibly growing the technology.

Plus, Waymo Driver is already working on improving road safety in the cities they operate in. Reports show that Waymo Driver minimizes the chances of high-risk collisions, as a result of which Waymo has fewer insurance claims, police records, and injury reports compared to human drivers.

Waymo also prides itself on being environmentally cautious. According to the company, its vehicles are all-electric and sources 100% renewable energy from the City's CleanPowerSF program.

After its commercial services began, it managed to curb carbon emissions by an estimated 570,000 kg, which contributed to California's ride-hail emissions goals.

However, it's important for me to mention that Waymo announced a couple of weeks ago that it will recall 672 driverless vehicles. This is because of a collision in Phoenix, Arizona in May.

What Is Tesla Upto?

Meanwhile, Elon Musk also has an update on Tesla Robotaxis, which is a direct competitor of Waymo. The unveiling of the Robotaxi is scheduled for August, but a Tesla employee posted a video giving us a glimpse of the autonomous ride-hailing service.

In a LinkedIn post on Saturday, Rosalie Nathans, who is the senior manager for used cars and online sales at Tesla, gave us a sneak-peek into how it will work.

In the video, Nathans was seen pressing a button labelled summon" on an app and within just a few seconds, the app showed a car on the map. Alongside the expected arrival time, the app also showed the seating capacity and the temperature of the car, which, by the way, can be adjusted before it arrives.

The video also shows the inside of the car and the central screen display from which one can manage everything. Still pinching myself that I got to demo Tesla's ride-hailing platform!" she wrote about the video.

All in all, these are exciting times for the autonomous taxis industry, and whether it's Tesla or Waymo that manages to lead the space, customers in the U.S. are certainly going to benefit from this technology, although I believe it'll take some time getting used to.

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