Waymo expands its robotaxi service across Silicon Valley

Waymo will begin providing robotaxi rides to individuals in its “Waymo One” early rider program in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and “elements of Sunnyvale” beginning Wednesday, an growth that may carry its footprint in Silicon Valley to 27 sq. miles.

The Waymo automobiles can be accessible around-the-clock, and the brand new territories add to the 55 sq. miles of protection already supplied within the San Francisco Bay Space, the corporate mentioned Tuesday.

The growth is a part of a busy yr of progress in each industrial deployments and of geographic testing for Waymo.

Simply final week, Uber customers in Austin, Texas might begin getting matched to Waymo automobiles on the ride-hailing app. Uber and Waymo plan to carry the identical service to Atlanta later this yr. (Waymo workers have been taking autonomous trips in that metropolis since January.) Waymo is launching in Miami, too, in partnership with African mobility startup Moove.

Waymo additionally plans to check in as many as 10 new U.S. cities this yr, together with Las Vegas and San Diego — one thing it’s in a position to do due to a massive $5.6 billion funding round that closed late final yr, valuing the robotaxi firm at $45 billion.

With Cruise’s commercial business now dead, Waymo is racing forward because the main U.S. robotaxi firm.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has mentioned his firm plans to trial a model of its long-promised robotaxi service in Austin in June, and presumably in California and different areas by the top of this yr. Uber and Yandex spinoff Avride additionally plan to launch a service in Dallas this year. Amazon-owned Zoox can be working to spin up a industrial launch in Las Vegas and, ultimately, in San Francisco as effectively.