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Transportation

Waymo Robotaxis Are Now Giving Rides On Freeways (techcrunch.com) 28

Posted by BeauHD from the hitting-the-highway dept.
Waymo is rolling out robotaxi rides that use freeways across Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix for the first time -- "a critical expansion for the company that it says will reduce ride times by up to 50%," reports TechCrunch. From the report: That stat could help attract a whole new group of users who need to travel between the many towns and suburbs within the greater San Francisco Bay Area or quicken commutes across the sprawling Los Angeles and Phoenix metro areas. Using freeways is also essential for Waymo to offer rides to and from the San Francisco Airport, a location the company is currently testing in.

The service won't be offered to all Waymo riders at first, the company said. Waymo riders who want to experience freeway rides can note their preference in the Waymo app. Once the rider hails a ride, they may be matched with a freeway trip, according to the company.

The company's robotaxi routes will now stretch to San Jose, an expansion that will create a unified 260-mile service area across the Peninsula, according to Waymo. The company said it will also begin curbside drop off and pick up service at the San Jose Mineta International Airport. It already offers curbside service to the Sky Harbor Phoenix International Airport.
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Waymo Robotaxis Are Now Giving Rides On Freeways More

Waymo Robotaxis Are Now Giving Rides On Freeways

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  • just wait for it to try to drop someone off in the (Score:4, Funny)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @08:04PM (#65791946)

    just wait for it to try to drop someone off in the middle of one!

    • That probably won't happen. But what might happen is that if it gets confused, it might stop dead in the middle of one, as has happened often on the streets of SF. That could be fatal when the guy behind plows into them at 75mph. I actually saw that happen years back with presumably human drivers on 101 just north of SF on the downgrade from the bridge. Don't know what happened to either car's occupants, but it was a full speed collision.

  • popcorn is ready (Score:3)

    by Megane ( 129182 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @08:54PM (#65792062)
    Getting my popcorn ready for when they turn that on in Austin. I only day trip to there infrequently, and I've already seen a stopped Waymo at a traffic light intersection with APD cops around it.
    • Earlier today I saw one patiently waiting in front of some road construction with its left turn signal on, while one of the construction workers was physically waving the drivers behind it around both the construction and the car. When I came back four hours later the car was gone, so somebody figured out something eventually.

  • Pass (Score:3)

    by Slashythenkilly ( 7027842 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @11:01PM (#65792252)
    On a closed circuit i am willing to give a self driving vehicle a shot as nothing out of the ordinary can happen outside of basic mechanical failure. On open roads and at freeway speeds, youve got no chance if something goes wrong. Self preservation is an instinct no computer can possess.

    • On a closed circuit i am willing to give a self driving vehicle a shot as nothing out of the ordinary can happen outside of basic mechanical failure. On open roads and at freeway speeds, youve got no chance if something goes wrong. Self preservation is an instinct no computer can possess.

      Errr you have that backwards. Open freeways are by far the *easier* condition to handle. There's a reason some companies have L3 systems which have been approved for use on freeways, but not in suburbs (though not yet released in any actual purchasable product I am aware of). Even Musk will wax poetic about how "safe" FSD is based on it's long history on freeways, only to then produce a robotaxi which on its first day drives the wrong way down a lane, stops in the middle of intersections, and hits a station

      • Feel free to hop in and prove me wrong. ;)

        • Feel free to hop in and prove me wrong. ;)

          Errr... gladly...? I drive daily with my hand on the wheel idly while my car basically takes me all the way to the end of a freeway without issue. In the past year I have only had an intervention at a roadwork (and that's because the lane markings were too narrow for the car to navigate). On the flip side country roads are really struggled with due to inconsistent lane markings, and local roads are too difficult for virtually all consumer systems as evident by the number of times Tesla has fucked up.

          But you

          • I love how swiftly you move the goalposts. #1. I said "closed circuit" which has nothing to do with city or country roads. #2 Driverless Waymo taxis (mentioned in the article) have nothing to do with you on the freeway still having to correct what the computer cant handle. Sorry, youll need another set of data points.

  • Could the be feeling the heat from Tesla's announcements for the Robotaxi?

    • Possibly a matter of catch-up. Telsa has the lead given that thusfar only Tesla has killed humans at highway speed.

    • Could the be feeling the heat from Tesla's announcements for the Robotaxi?

      Could be that it's the natural progression of a product that was rolled out in a cautious and obvious way? Waymo applied for permits to start testing on highways in 2023, back when the robotaxi wasn't even announced. They started testing on highways in Jan 2024, back when the robotaxis were rumoured but everyone thought that it was going to be a Model 2.

      This is what happens when you have a careful company testing products and rolling them out in a safe way.

      That said I'm sure they do feel a bit of pressure.

  • The other day I was driving on the highway and I saw a squirrel run into the grass boulevard around 50 feet in front of me. I naturally slowed down to allow the squirrel to decide whether it wanted to cross the road or not. I was almost at a stop before it decided to run back the other way. I am wonder what a waymo cab would do in that situation? Does it even see the squirrel? Can it even tell the difference between a blowing leaf and a squirrel?
  • Despite my aversion to mega corporations including Google, I recently rode Waymo in San Francisco and in Los Angeles. I would not have dared to use it with a highway stretch at the first go, but after having made the experience, I can only say I felt really reassured and safe, due to the screen showing what the car sees. And in quite a few cases it spotted pedestrians with dark clothing in the dark that a human would have spotted way later. The driving style is relaxed and unhurried, so not prone to cause i

    • I would have to see the code architecture before I trust it at highway speeds. Of course, even that is probably not enough, since NN learning results in decisions which are opaque to understanding, as are the failure modes.

      • If you always at least check the driver's licence of your taxi or Uber driver, that makes sense. Otherwise, not so much.

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