Waymo on Tuesday will begin offering around-the-clock autonomous rides in several Silicon Valley cities, marking a significant expansion of the company’s service.
The service will operate across a 27-square-mile area encompassing Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and parts of Sunnyvale.
Initially, select Waymo One riders living within the service area will have access to the expanded offerings. The company plans to expand to more customers in the region over time.
The expansion represents a homecoming for Waymo, which began testing autonomous vehicles in Mountain View in 2009.
“Opening our fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Silicon Valley marks a special milestone in our Bay Area journey,” said Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo’s chief product officer. “This is where Waymo began and where we’re headquartered. Now we’re bringing seamless rides, safer streets, and sustainable transportation to our local community.”
Waymo says it provides more than 200,000 paid passenger trips and 1 million miles in rides every week across all its operating locations. Last week, the company partnered with Uber to launch its robotaxi service in Austin.
The Silicon Valley and San Francisco (including Daly City) service areas will operate independently to start, but the Alphabet-owned company is working to connect the areas so customers can zip around the Bay Area more easily.