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Axios
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Axios
Waymo grows Bay Area and LA service zones
Waymo, the Silicon Valley-based robotaxi service, is widening its Bay Area footprint as part of a broader California push, the company announced Tuesday. Why it matters: Waymo's latest expansion in California underscores growing confidence in self-driving cars as it ramps up its rollout in more cities across the U.S. State of play: Starting Tuesday, riders in the South Bay cities of Brisbane, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae and Burlingame can hail driverless rides via the Waymo One app. The company is also expanding its service area for riders in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The announcement comes a few days after the company halted service in parts of San Francisco amid anti-Trump protests. Between the lines: Waymo will also launch service Wednesday in more of Los Angeles — including Playa del Rey, Ladera Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake and all of Sunset Boulevard — bringing its LA coverage area to more than 120 square miles. The big picture: The 80-square-mile expansion in both LA and the Bay Area boosts its total California footprint to 250 square miles. By the numbers: The Alphabet-owned company is now averaging 250,000 weekly trips across its four markets in San Francisco, LA, Phoenix and Austin — a fivefold jump from just a year ago, according to spokesperson Chris Bonelli. The intrigue: Waymo will also soon become available in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta and is testing runs in cities including Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Nashville and Boston.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Waymo robotaxis are pushing into even more California cities
Waymo is expanding its robotaxi service area by another 80 square miles in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Silicon Valley, the company announced Tuesday. Waymo's commercial service area now covers more than 250 square miles across California, pushing the driverless Jaguar I-Pace vehicles into new pockets of three populous metro areas. The expansion comes a little over a week after several Waymo robotaxis were burned and vandalized during protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration's immigration raids. The scorched Waymo robotaxis — images that became emblematic of those protests — prompted the company to pull back service in Los Angeles. On Friday, the company took additional steps and limited service nationwide in preparation of widespread protests over immigration policies. Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli said the company continually evaluates and adjusts its operations based on traffic conditions, special events, and local guidance. He confirmed that the company is still temporarily limiting the Waymo service in parts of Los Angeles, including downtown, and said it will monitor the evolving situation and ramp up service soon. These incidents don't appear to be slowing the Alphabet-owned company's push into new markets, however. (New LA areas appear in light blue.) Waymo said that starting Tuesday its service will now be available to riders in the San Francisco Bay Area communities of Brisbane, South SF, San Bruno, Millbrae, and Burlingame, as well as the Silicon Valley towns of Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Waymo said it will expand its LA service area, starting Wednesday, into the neighborhoods of Playa del Rey, Ladera Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and the entirety of Sunset Boulevard. Riders will now be able to travel from Mid-City to Inglewood and Westchester via La Cienega and La Brea, according to Waymo, which says it now serves more than 120 square miles of LA County. The company's growth — in terms of weekly paid trips across San Francisco, LA, Phoenix, and Austin — has increased five-fold since June 2024. Today, Waymo is serving over a quarter of a million paid trips per week across those four markets. Waymo's commercial fleet includes more than 400 vehicles in LA and more than 600 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sign in to access your portfolio
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
Waymo expands service area in Los Angeles and San Francisco
Waymo, the autonomous taxi company that's offered rides in Los Angeles since November, is expanding its service area in the city. Starting Wednesday, the driverless taxis will roam more than 120 square miles of Los Angeles County, stretching from Santa Monica to downtown and from West Hollywood to Inglewood. The expanded service area will include Playa del Rey, Ladera Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake and the entirety of Sunset Boulevard, according to company spokesperson Chris Bonelli. Customers using the ride-hailing service will also be able to take Waymo vehicles directly from Mid-City to Inglewood and Westchester via La Cienega Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Bonelli said. The vehicles began testing on Los Angeles freeways early this year. Waymo's fleet of electric Jaguars has become a common sight in Los Angeles, where anyone can download the app and request a ride. Before coming to Southern California, Waymo launched in Phoenix and San Francisco, where collectively the vehicles have driven tens of thousands of riders more than 30 million miles without a human driver. Waymo provides more than 250,000 paid rides per week. Waymo vehicles rely on cameras, sensors and a type of laser radar called lidar to operate autonomously. Based on data collected by Waymo, their driverless vehicles had 81% fewer airbag deployment crashes, 78% fewer injury-causing crashes and 62% fewer police-reported crashes than traditional vehicles driving the same distance. The company got its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, which began in 2009 and put its first autonomous car on the road in 2015. The project rebranded as Waymo in 2016 under Google's parent company Alphabet and launched its driverless ride-hailing service known as Waymo One in 2020. Waymo One is poised to expand to Miami, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Customers in Austin, Texas, can request a Waymo through the Uber app. Also starting Wednesday, Bay Area riders will have expanded access to the San Francisco Peninsula, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Waymo One will be made available to customers in South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae and Burlingame. Waymo's expansion in Los Angeles comes just days after several of the autonomous vehicles were vandalized and set on fire during anti-ICE protests downtown.
TechCrunch
3 days ago
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Waymo robotaxis are pushing into even more California cities
Waymo is expanding its robotaxi service area by another 80 square miles in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Silicon Valley, the company announced Tuesday. Waymo's commercial service area now covers more than 250 square miles across California, pushing the driverless Jaguar I-Pace vehicles into new pockets of three populous metro areas. The expansion comes a little over a week since several Waymo robotaxis were burned and vandalized during protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration's immigration raids. The scorched Waymo robotaxis — images that became emblematic of those protests — prompted the company to pull back service in Los Angeles. On Friday, the company took additional steps and limited service nationwide in preparation of widespread protests over immigration policies. Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli said the company continually evaluates and adjusts its operations based on traffic conditions, special events, and local guidance. He confirmed that the company is still temporarily limiting the Waymo service in parts of Los Angeles, including downtown, and said it will monitor the evolving situation and ramp up service soon. These incidents don't appear to be slowing the Alphabet-owned company's push into new markets, however. (New LA areas in light blue) Waymo said that starting Tuesday its service will now be available to riders in the San Francisco Bay Area communities of Brisbane, South SF, San Bruno, Millbrae, and Burlingame, as well as the Silicon Valley towns of Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Waymo said it will expand its LA service area, starting Wednesday, into the neighborhoods of Playa del Rey, Ladera Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and the entirety of Sunset Boulevard. Riders will now be able to travel from Mid-City to Inglewood and Westchester via La Cienega and La Brea, according to Waymo, which says it now serves more than 120 square miles of LA County. The company's growth — in terms of weekly paid trips across San Francisco, LA, Phoenix, and Austin — has increased five-fold since June 2024. Today, Waymo is serving over a quarter of a million paid trips per week across those four markets. Waymo's commercial fleet includes more than 400 vehicles in LA and more than 600 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Waymo, Magna to jointly build robotaxis at new Arizona factory
This story was originally published on Automotive Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Automotive Dive newsletter. Autonomous driving technology developer Waymo is partnering with Tier 1 automotive supplier Magna International to jointly build robotaxis at a new 239,000-square-foot facility in the Metro Phoenix area, the company announced in a May 5 blog post. The factory is a multi-million dollar investment and will create hundreds of jobs in Mesa, Arizona, that support Waymo's plans to scale its commercial Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing service to additional U.S. cities. Through next year, the two companies aim to outfit 2,000 additional Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs with the 'Waymo Driver' autonomous driving technology stack in Arizona for use in Waymo's ride-hailing service. But the facility will be capable of building 'tens of thousands' of robotaxis a year once fully operational, according to the release. Waymo said its Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing service has grown significantly over the past several years, creating demand for additional vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology in order to scale the commercial mobility service to additional U.S. cities. Waymo operates roughly 1,500 vehicles across Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area and currently provides over 250,000 paid trips per week in its driverless robotaxis, according to the release. The next planned launch cities for Waymo One include Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C. The new Arizona facility will allow Waymo and Magna to install AV hardware on multiple vehicle platforms simultaneously — and at higher volumes. Among the equipment being installed at the plant is an automated assembly line. In an email to Automotive Dive, Waymo Product Communications Manager Chris Bonelli said the company has a contract manufacturing partnership with Magna, which leases the building. The robotaxi build process includes sub-assembly of the Waymo Driver components and general assembly to integrate them into the Jaguar I-PACE SUVs, according to Bonelli. Once installed, Waymo drives the vehicles manually to validate the hardware and software before commissioning it for use by Waymo One. 'We have a series of hardware and software checks in place to be sure all components are working as intended,' Bonelli said. In the blog, Waymo said it has implemented new processes at the Arizona facility that significantly reduce the time and cost required to certify its autonomous vehicles to carry riders. Vehicles assigned to Waymo's Phoenix fleet can drive autonomously out of the facility and directly into service in less than 30 minutes after leaving the factory. For Waymo One vehicles destined for ride-hailing service in other cities, they can be deployed within hours after being shipped to a local depot, according to Waymo. 'The Waymo Driver integration plant in Mesa is the epicenter of our future growth plans,' said Ryan McNamara, Waymo VP of operations, in the release. 'With our partners at Magna, we've opened a manufacturing site that enables the cost efficiency, flexibility, and capacity to scale our fleet to new heights.' Waymo uses a fleet of modified Jaguar I-PACE vehicles for its Waymo One ride-hailing service, but the company plans to add Zeekr RT passenger vans from China-based electric vehicle brand Zeekr. The EV will also be outfitted with the Waymo Driver in Arizona. Zeekr is majority owned by automaker Geely, one of China's biggest OEMs and the parent company of Volvo Cars. Although tariffs on imported vehicles could impact the cost of the Zeekr RT, Bonelli said Waymo is 'monitoring the dynamic tariff situation closely' and will continue to test the EV on public roads as planned. Waymo's collaboration with Magna follows a similar partnership announced on April 30 with Toyota Motor Corp. Waymo and Toyota plan to collaborate on the development of an autonomous vehicle platform and explore ways to integrate Waymo's technology into personally owned Toyota vehicles. Recommended Reading Toyota, Waymo to collaborate on autonomous driving platform Sign in to access your portfolio
