Waymo opens up robotaxi service to everyone

Autonomous driving technology company Waymo has opened up its driverless robotaxi service to everyone in San Francisco. Previously, the company had a waitlist for those looking to get a ride and nearly 300k people have signed up for it.

Users can hail a Waymo robotaxi through the Waymo One app and the company says that rides will be available across the city 24/7.

Waymo has been transporting passengers for over six years and now provides more than 50,000 rides a week across three major urban areas. About 30% of Waymo rides in San Francisco are to local businesses. In a recent survey, over half of the riders said they used Waymo in the past couple of months for medical appointments, highlighting the value of personal space during these trips. Additionally, 36% of its San Francisco riders used Waymo to connect to other forms of transit.

Over the 3.8+ million rider-only miles it has driven in SF through the end of March, the Waymo Driver was involved in 17 fewer crashes with injuries and 12 fewer police-reportable crashes compared to human drivers.

In 2022, Waymo and Swiss Re announced a research collaboration aimed at developing new risk assessment methodologies around autonomous vehicles.