After years of negotiations and false starts, Waymo is now able to operate a robotaxi service to and from San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The company owned by Alphabet he said in a blog post Thursday will begin offering access to SFO to a select number of riders before offering it to all customers in the coming months.
Pickups and drop-offs will take place at the SFO Rental Car Center, which is accessible via AirTrain. Waymo said it plans to serve additional airport locations in the future.
Waymo’s SFO victory comes as the company faces criticism and safety concerns in some of the cities it operates. Waymo revealed Thursday that one of its robots hit a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the Jan. 23 incident, in which the child suffered minor injuries. Waymo is also being investigated by the NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board over the illegal behavior of its robot taxi around school buses.
Access to airports, and SFO in particular, is critical to Waymo’s business model, which depends on geographic scale and high ridership.
“Running service to and from San Francisco International Airport offers one of the most sought-after features for our riders and further deepens our relationship with the city,” said Waymo Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana.
The company has accelerated its plans over the past year, launching in new cities, increasing the size of its fleet and adding highways where it operates. Waymo robotaxis now serves most of the San Francisco Bay Area and down into Silicon Valley, where it has access to San Jose Airport. It also operates in parts of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami and most of Phoenix, including curbside service to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Waymo’s push to operate at SFO took years. Try and failed to secure permission in 2023 to map SFO, a first step in bringing its robotics there. Waymo then restarted negotiations with the city and airport authority and received a permit in March 2025 that would allow it to map SFO with certain data-sharing strings, according to agreement language seen by TechCrunch at the time.
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By September, SFO and Waymo signed a pilot test and operations license, moving the company closer to commercial operations at the airport.
