Waymo has expanded its service along the Peninsula, which include freeway trips for some riders, as well as curbside service at San Jose International Airport.
According to a post on its website Nov. 12, Waymo is now offering limited freeway rides along the Peninsula, including on Highway 101, Interstate 280 and State Route 92, and is extending its ride-hailing service in the county all the way down to Santa Clara County. In September, the company secured a permit from San Francisco International Airport, though its ride-hailing service is not yet available to customers.
The expansion “is built on real-world performance and millions of miles logged on freeways, skillfully handling highway dynamics with our employees and guests in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles,” the Waymo blog post read.
Riders can express interest in a freeway ride via the app and can be matched with one when it is significantly faster.
“Achieving fully autonomous freeway operations is a profound engineering feat — easy to conceive, yet hard to truly master. This milestone is a powerful testament to the maturity of our operations and technology,” Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said in a statement. “We are proud to begin offering riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix trips that use freeways as we continue to scale the Waymo Driver, always guided by safety.”
The announcement comes a little over a year after the autonomous vehicle company first expanded its ride-hailing service in San Mateo County, which, until recently, has only been available in mid to north county. The initial expansion drew concern from several elected officials. The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors was vocal in its pursuit to gain more local control over how autonomous vehicles were deployed in its jurisdictions, passing a resolution in support of Senate Bill 915, which aimed to entrust cities with more authority over AV operations, and it also filed an amicus brief in support of San Francisco’s decision to sue the California Public Utilities Commission over the regulator’s decision to approve Waymo and Cruise expansion.
Federal lawmakers, such as U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, and former U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo penned a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, requesting more in-depth reporting requirements for autonomous vehicles.
But now, most leaders in the county have come around on Waymo. In April, David Canepa, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said the company “has really stepped up their game” and that he uses the service on a regular basis. According to data from the Department of Motor Vehicles, between August 2024 — when the ride-hailing service first expanded to the county — and the end of October 2025, there have been 10 collision reports involving Waymo.
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