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 can deliver its footprint in Silicon Valley to 27 sq. miles.
The Waymo autos will probably 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 Area, the corporate mentioned Tuesday.
The growth is a part of a busy yr of progress in each business deployments and of geographic testing for Waymo.
Just final week, Uber customers in Austin, Texas may begin getting matched to Waymo autos on the ride-hailing app. Uber and Waymo plan to deliver the identical service to Atlanta later this yr. (Waymo workers have been taking autonomous journeys 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 thanks to an enormous $5.6 billion funding spherical that closed late final yr, valuing the robotaxi firm at $45 billion.
With Cruise’s business enterprise now lifeless, 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 probably in California and different places by the top of this yr. Uber and Yandex spinoff Avride additionally plan to launch a service in Dallas this yr. Amazon-owned Zoox can be working to spin up a business launch in Las Vegas and, ultimately, in San Francisco as nicely.
