Beginning Tuesday, the company will offer rides in its self-driving vehicles to a select group of customers in Los Altos, Palo Alto, Mountain View and parts of Sunnyvale. Users can hail a Waymo vehicle through the company's Waymo One app, similar to booking an Uber or Lyft.
Whereas in the past Waymo drew customers from a waitlist whenever the company spread to new regions, riders in the new Silicon Valley service zone will be picked from a pool of recent Waymo One app users whose zip codes fall within the area. The company will gradually accept more riders over time and announce availability over the app.
The 27-square mile South Bay roll-out comes less than a year after Waymo opened to the public in San Francisco. The company then moved across the Daly City border to serve a 10-mile swath of the Peninsula, including Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma.
"Opening our fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Silicon Valley marks a special milestone in our Bay Area journey," the company's chief product officer, Saswat Panigrahi, said in a statement, noting that Waymo began its first rounds of autonomous vehicle testing in Mountain View back in 2009.
Brandi Jothimani, senior services program director for the Community Services Agency of Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills envisioned Waymo as a safe "senior transportation" option for the medically fragile population she serves. Case managers could take robotaxis to visit seniors at home, or shepherd them to doctor appointments, she said.
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