Waymo will begin offering Robotaki rides on “part of Sunnyvale” starting Wednesday with the early rider program for “Waymo One” at Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and “part of Sunnyvale.”
Waymo vehicles will be available every 24 hours, with the new territory adding to the 55-square-mile coverage already available in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company said Tuesday.
This expansion is part of a busy year of growth, both in commercial deployments and WAYMO geographical testing.
Last week, Uber users in Austin, Texas could start being matched with Waymo vehicles on the ride app. Uber and Waymo are planning to bring the same service to Atlanta later this year. (Waymo employees have been on autonomous trips in the city since January.) Waymo is also on sale in Miami in partnership with African mobility startup Move.
Waymo will also be testing in up to 10 new US cities this year, including Las Vegas and San Diego. This is planned to be possible thanks to the $5.6 billion funding round that closed late last year, valueating the Robotaxi Company at $45 billion.
With Cruise’s commercial business currently dead, Waymo is competing as a major US Robotaxi company.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his company plans to try out a long-standing version of the Robotaxi service in Austin in June. The Uber and Yandex spinoff Avride is scheduled to launch in Dallas this year. Amazon-owned Zoox is working to spin up its commercial launches in Las Vegas and, ultimately, San Francisco.
