Select Waymo One riders can now get received or dropped from the company’s robotic walkway at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Waymo became the first autonomous vehicle operator in the US to launch a paid robotaxi service to and from the airport in November 2022. The service went to an airport bus stop at the 44th Street Sky Train Station. Navigating the terminal’s bumpy curbs will be a whole new challenge, but Waymo is starting with limited hours, starting at 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and only in terminals 3 and 4, in order to develop and learn safely.
Waymo has already completed “tens of thousands of airport trips to date” and serves over a thousand trips each week, according to the company. The average trip rating for airport trips was about 4.7 out of 5 stars, Waymo says.
The expansion of Waymo’s airport service comes as the former Cruise rival is laying off nearly a quarter of its staff and laying off a handful of executives following an Oct. 2 incident that left a pedestrian pinned down and then swept away by one of the her robot taxi.
Waymo’s new airport service, which is fully autonomous (meaning there’s no human safety operator behind the wheel) will only be available to “a select group of active riders in Phoenix, not necessarily or exclusively to trusted testers,” Chris Bonelli, product communications manager at Waymo, told TechCrunch. Waymo’s trusted testers are riders who have been vetted by the company and have signed non-disclosure agreements.
The Alphabet-owned company plans to open these pickup locations to all of its riders and expand to 24/7 service in the “coming months” as it gains more experience at the terminals.
“Last year, we partnered with Waymo to become the first airport in the world to offer travelers the ability to ride a self-driving vehicle through the airport,” Chad Makovsky, director of aviation at Sky Harbor Airport, said in a statement. “This partnership has allowed us to develop confidence in the technology and we are excited to take the next step and safely extend this innovative service to the curbside of our terminals.”
