Waymo Opens Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service For Everyone In San Francisco

JAKARTA - Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet that develops autonomous vehicles, announced that its autonomous ride-hailing service, Waymo One, is now available to everyone in San Francisco. This comes nearly four years after a similar service was launched in Phoenix, Arizona.

The move is part of Waymo's efforts to achieve commercial success with driverless vehicles, despite intense scrutiny from regulators and investor concerns about rising investments in this new technology.

Waymo began testing its autonomous services in San Francisco in 2021 with a research-focused program, which includes autonomous specialists in vehicles for all trips.

Since opening the city's waiting list, about 300,000 people have signed up to ride with Waymo, which is showing strong demand. Now, anyone in San Francisco can ask for a ride through the Waymo app.

The Mountain View, California-based company started its first driverless taxi service in the US in 2020, more than a decade after its establishment in 2009 as a project in Google. In March, Waymo received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CLUC) to start the Waymo One service in Los Angeles and several cities near San Francisco.

Waymo competitors, including Cruise backed by Amazon's General Motors and Zoox, are also trying to succeed in the autonomous vehicle market. However, the performance of autonomous cars remains under scrutiny, where the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently learned of nine additional incidents involving self-driving Waymo vehicles.