Waymo Expands Ride-Hailing Service, Amid Growing Demand

Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving division has said “ incredible demand” is behind its decision to expand its Waymo One service in in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The firm announced that its autonomous ride-hailing service (Waymo One) is being expanded once again, “providing more rides in more places in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County.”

It comes after the firm in June this year announced it was opening the Waymo One service to all residents of San Francisco, after similar move in Phoenix in 2020.

Waymo One expansion

The opening of the Waymo One service to all San Fran residents came after the US safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), had said in May that its investigation of Waymo self-driving vehicles had uncovered more incidents that raised concerns.

It should be noted that the NHTSA is also investigating rival robotaxi service providers GM’s Cruise and Amazon’s Zoox.

The US agency is also investigating Elon Musk’s Tesla over its Autopilot driver assistance program.

But Waymo says it is expanding its -ride-hailing service in San Francisco and Los Angeles due to customer demand.

“Starting today, we’re bringing Waymo One to the San Francisco Peninsula for the first time, adding Daly City, Broadmoor, and Colma to our existing, round-the-clock public ride-hailing service,” said the firm on Tuesday. “Tomorrow, we will expand our Los Angeles service area to include Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, Playa Vista, and more of Hollywood, Chinatown and Westwood.”

“Our team is laser focused on refining Waymo One to be as seamless and useful as possible for our riders,” said Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo chief product officer.

“This means offering exceptional ride quality, short wait times, and more exciting destinations. We’re committed to California, where many of our team members call home, so it’s really special to be able to bring the benefits of full autonomy to even more people in San Francisco and Los Angeles.”

Incredible demand

The firm said that after removing the waitlist for its San Francisco service in June, it has seen “incredible demand from locals and visitors alike. Now, our SF operations cover 55 square miles of the Bay Area – from Fisherman’s Wharf to Serramonte Center – and connect to the Daly City and Colma BART Stations, so even more people can ride.”

“Since beginning commercial operations in Los Angeles in March, we’ve had more than 150 thousand people sign up for the waitlist and have been scaling deliberately to align our vehicle supply with rider demand,” the firm added. “Angelenos have been enjoying their rides, as the average trip rating has remained above 4.7 out of 5 in that time. Now riders can explore a total of 79 square miles of LA County.”

The Waymo One has apparently been growing steadily and serves over 50,000 paid rides per week across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. The autonomous driving service helps parents take their kids to school, vulnerable groups get home safely late at night, and seniors be even more independent.

A couple of weeks ago Alphabet announced it will invest $5 billion in Waymo over a multi-year period, as the company looks to bolster its self-driving unit’s expansion plans.