Waymo begins autonomous taxi service to SFO airport

Waymo has started providing rides with its autonomous taxi service to San Francisco International airport, starting today for select riders.

Waymo is Google’s driverless taxi division, which provides autonomous “level 4” taxi rides to the public via the Waymo One app. Level 4 means a truly driverless vehicle – there’s nobody in the driver’s seat, and no human operating the vehicle. There may be some limitations on when and where it operates, but the driving is always the responsibility of the vehicle software itself.

The company has been providing these driverless rides in some form or another since 2019, starting off in Phoenix and gradually expanding to 6 metro areas as of today. (Read our way-too-long review of Waymo’s performance on a chaotic Venice Beach weekend)

But as the company has rolled out, there have been some notable gaps in coverage: namely, airports.

Airports are often complicated to navigate, with nonstandard signage, lots of cars making snap decisions, cars stopped in strange areas, and unfamiliar drivers and pedestrians all about.

Further, airports often have agreements with taxi services and regulators that need to be contractually navigated.

So when Waymo first rolled out in Phoenix, it didn’t cover Sky Harbor (now it does). And when it first rolled out in San Francisco, it didn’t cover SFO.

But that’s changing today, at least for some riders.

Waymo announced that SFO service starts today, stating that it will give “access to a select number of riders and will gradually welcome all riders over the coming months.”

But there’s a bit of a caveat here: as of now, Waymo will only drop off and pick up riders at the SFO rental car center, down the road from the main terminal area. From there, riders can grab a shuttle to the main terminal.

Waymo says it has “plans to serve additional airport locations like the terminals in the future,” but didn’t give a date as to when that might happen.

So, the rollout maybe falls slightly short of true terminal service like Waymo currently has at Sky Harbor, and avoids most of the chaos of airport driving. Waymo also initially offered Sky Harbor service to a nearby light rail link, but now goes to the terminal proper.

It’s also not Waymo’s first airport in California, or even in the Bay Area. The company also serves SJC airport in nearby San Jose, as of September. Though that can be quite a haul if riding a Waymo from SF proper.

Waymo doesn’t yet cover LAX, but does get vanishingly close to doing so, with a coverage area that goes right up to the border of LAX’s property, well within walking distance if a rider doesn’t mind a bit of a hike. (And that’s a highly in-demand area for taxi service, as everyone in LA knows it’s a big request to ask your friend for a ride to the airport…). Waymo says it’s in “active discussions” with LAX, with nothing to share for now.

Meanwhile, Waymo’s main competition in the robotaxi space, Tesla, claimed again yesterday that it has Robotaxis running in the SF Bay Area, when that just isn’t the case.

Of course, if you want to get a ride to the airport without having to drive yourself, there is another method… BART, the Bay Area’s light rail public transit system, which has always covered SFO airport and drops you off even closer to the terminal than Waymo does. Plus it costs about a quarter as much and reduces congestion.

But, if you’re looking for a true robotaxi to give you a ride to the airport in SF, you just got your first option.

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