Waymo autonomous vehicles will soon begin testing out operations at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Tuesday.
The airport has signed a testing and operations pilot permit with Waymo, allowing the self-driving cars to start rolling out in three phases of testing.
“The approval of this permit with Waymo provides passengers with a new and innovative option that delivers the dependability and ease travelers expect when coming through SFO, the gateway to San Francisco,” said SFO director Mike Nakornkhet in a statement.
The first phase entails allowing Waymo vehicles to self-drive on designated roads at the airport with a trained specialist behind the wheel. In the second phase, Waymo cars in full autonomous mode will start picking up and dropping off SFO and Waymo employees.
The third phase includes kicking off commercial operations for all Waymo customers in a pilot period.
The permit agreement also includes strict safety and reporting requirements to evaluate performance.
Efforts to bring Waymo to SFO go back to 2023, but delays in permit approvals stalled plans. Additionally, Waymo did not receive permission to expand operations into San Mateo County, where the airport is based, and on freeways until 2024.
In March, Waymo was granted a permit to begin mapping roadways at SFO.
“We announced in March that we wanted visitors to be able to ride in a Waymo as soon as they arrived in San Francisco, and today, we are taking another important step to get there,” Lurie said in a statement.
Waymo, which launched fully autonomous ride-hailing services in San Francisco in 2022, first began airport operations at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in 2022. Earlier this month, Waymo got the green light to start pickups and dropoffs at San Jose Mineta International Airport.
Bringing Waymo to SFO, Lurie said, will also offer tourists a unique experience that helps define San Francisco as a hub for technology and innovation.
“We have tourists from around the world that want to try out our autonomous vehicles and they are soon going to have the opportunity starting right when they land at our great airport,” Lurie said in a video posted to his Instagram account Tuesday.
Nope
Nuh-Uh
Not that I would use one but they’ve been testing these for several years in my neighborhood. The park around the corner seems to be some kind of base station. There’s always someone behind the wheel. They had free rides on it for awhile here in Martinez.
I already have used Waymo. I prefer it over Lyft and Uber.
Only if I had a device to pop windows if I became
locked in the vehicle
Look up Automatic center punch.
Used Waymo twice. Smooth ride. I’d prefer giving a human driver the money though.
Any self-driving car I ride in will be driven by MY self.
Yes, self-driving cars are statistically safer than human driven ones … especially that uber driven by some random stranger.
Yes.
never
Ah, … have they taught software, what the side of a bus is ? ? ?
I see these all over in SF, and I would ride in one, just for the experience, except…the app is a google app and strive to have as little google data collection on my phone. Now, it has been a couple months, but I would see easily a dozen of these cars in a 7-10 minute period, and I have seen passengers in these maybe 2 times. Just last week, driving down maybe 14th, I had 2 in front, one next to and 2 behind me, all empty. I think the tech is neat, but unnecessary. Why the drive (pardon the pun) to eliminate drivers is so strong, I do not know, but it is definitely, well, annoying.
The only driverless car you would ever see me riding in would be Herbie!
No – still not nearly perfected enough