Waymo Debuts Autonomous Road Trips

Waymo, a leader in on-demand autonomous private transportation, has just further distanced itself from Tesla and other rivals by becoming the first service of its kind on highways, which began to be available to a limited group of users in the San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles areas.

“Driving on the highway is something that is easy to learn, but very difficult to master when it comes to full autonomy without a human backup driver and on a large scale,” said Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo's co-CEO, at a press conference.

Dolgov added that Google's autonomous car project began testing on highways in its early days, more than 15 years ago.

The new highway feature allows Waymo to better connect cities in the Bay Area, extending service south to San Jose and creating a unified 260-square-mile area, the company said.

It will also offer pickup and drop-off service at San Jose International Airport for the first time, a service it has been providing in Phoenix since late 2022.

Backed by Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, Waymo said it has been testing its Waymo Driver system on highways with employees and guests for more than a year and will gradually add highway trips to more cities.