Waymo has expanded its fully driverless freeway rides from early-access users to the general public in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, making it the first company in the US to offer autonomous highway rides without a safety driver. The move comes months after Waymo initially launched freeway service to a limited group of riders in November 2025.
The Alphabet-owned robotaxi company said Wednesday that riders in all three cities can now be matched with freeway routes when doing so is “meaningfully faster” than surface-street alternatives. The service operates 24 hours a day and uses the same lidar, radar, and 29-camera sensor suite that powers Waymo’s city-street driving, supplemented by new freeway-specific protocols developed with the California Highway Patrol and Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Scaling to Meet Demand
Waymo’s fleet now numbers more than 1,500 vehicles across five US cities. The company said it has logged millions of autonomous miles on freeways through testing with employees and guests before opening the service to paying riders. Vehicles are designed to travel up to the posted speed limit and will exit the freeway to find a safe stopping point if they need to pull over.
The freeway expansion is paired with a broader push into new territory. Waymo is extending its Bay Area coverage to include San Jose and curbside service at Mineta San Jose International Airport, its second airport connection after Phoenix Sky Harbor. The company has also announced plans to bring freeway capabilities to Austin and Atlanta in the coming months.
Competitors Still Rely on Safety Drivers
Waymo remains the only US company operating a paid robotaxi service without human safety drivers. Tesla launched its own robotaxi service in Austin earlier this year but continues to station a human operator in the driver’s seat for every ride, including highway trips. Cruise, which had been testing in San Francisco, remains grounded following safety incidents in late 2023.
Elon Musk, who has long criticized Waymo’s reliance on lidar sensors, responded to the freeway announcement on X with a single word: “Congrats.” The exchange came after Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov called the milestone “a profound engineering feat,” noting that freeway driving is “very easy to learn, but very hard to master” at full autonomy and scale.
Waymo is also preparing for international expansion. The company has outlined a pilot program with UK regulators to begin fully driverless rides in London by 2026, which would make it the first autonomous taxi service operating in a major European city.
Sources: Reuters; CNBC; eWeek; CBS News; CBT News
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