Waymo continues to expand its reach, with the robotaxi company suspension Friday that it is now “officially licensed to drive fully autonomously across most of the Golden State.”
Waymo already operates in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles (and outside of California, too, in Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix). But maps published from the California Department of Motor Vehicles showed that the company can now test and deploy its autonomous vehicles over a much larger area in both the Bay Area and Southern California.
In the Bay Area, Waymo’s approved areas of operation now include most of the East Bay and North Bay (including Napa/Wine Country), as well as Sacramento. In Southern California, the company’s authorized territory now stretches from Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles) to San Diego.
The company will need additional regulatory approval to be able to carry paying passengers in some of these areas, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
While Waymo’s post didn’t offer many details about when it plans to actually start offering rides in all of these new areas, the company did write, “Next stop: welcoming riders to San Diego in mid-2026!”
The company had previously announced its intention to launch in San Diego next year, along with Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, Seattle and Washington, DC.
There’s been a lot of news about Waymo’s expansion over the past couple of weeks, as the company announced it will be entering Minneapolis, New Orleans and Tampa. is removing safety drivers ahead of its commercial launch in Miami. and will begin offering freeway routes in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix.
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We discussed the development of Waymo and other robotaxi companies on the latest episode of the Equity podcast. My co-host Sean O’Kane noted that as Waymo begins to provide more unrestricted access to the Bay Area, people could be spending a lot more time in their robotaxi — so we might see them use the service in new, odd, or even dangerous ways.
