Waymo will begin providing robotaxi rides to folks in its “Waymo One” early rider program in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and “components of Sunnyvale” beginning Wednesday, an growth that may carry its footprint in Silicon Valley to 27 sq. miles.
The Waymo autos might be out there around-the-clock, and the brand new territories add to the 55 sq. miles of protection already provided within the San Francisco Bay Space, the corporate stated Tuesday.
The growth is a part of a busy 12 months of progress in each business deployments and of geographic testing for Waymo.
Simply final week, Uber customers in Austin, Texas might begin getting matched to Waymo autos on the ride-hailing app. Uber and Waymo plan to carry the identical service to Atlanta later this 12 months. (Waymo staff have been taking autonomous trips in that metropolis since January.) Waymo is launching in Miami, too, in partnership with African mobility startup Moove.
Waymo additionally plans to check in as many as 10 new U.S. cities this 12 months, together with Las Vegas and San Diego — one thing it’s in a position to do because of a massive $5.6 billion funding round that closed late final 12 months, valuing the robotaxi firm at $45 billion.
With Cruise’s commercial business now dead, Waymo is racing forward because the main U.S. robotaxi firm.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stated his firm plans to trial a model of its long-promised robotaxi service in Austin in June, and probably in California and different areas by the top of this 12 months. Uber and Yandex spinoff Avride additionally plan to launch a service in Dallas this year. Amazon-owned Zoox can be working to spin up a business launch in Las Vegas and, ultimately, in San Francisco as nicely.
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