Waymo expands its robotaxi service across Silicon Valley

Waymo will start offering robotaxi rides to people in its “Waymo One” early rider program in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and “parts of Sunnyvale” starting Wednesday, an expansion that will bring its footprint in Silicon Valley to 27 square miles. The Waymo vehicles will be available around-the-clock, and the new territories add to the 55 square miles of coverage already offered in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company said Tuesday. The expansion is part of a busy year of growth in both commercial deployments and of geographic testing for Waymo. Just last week, Uber users in Austin, Texas could start getting matched to Waymo vehicles on the ride-hailing app. Uber and Waymo plan to bring the same service to Atlanta later this year. (Waymo employees have been taking autonomous trips in that city since January.) Waymo is launching in Miami, too, in partnership with African mobility startup Moove. Waymo also plans to test in as many as 10 new U.S. cities this year, including ... Read full article.