Waymo robotaxis now rides on freeways in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix

Sixteen years ago, engineers working on Google’s self-driving project conducted the first self-driving vehicle tests on the highway that connects Silicon Valley to San Francisco.

The company would eventually become Waymo, autonomous vehicle testing would expand — spreading to other cities. Eventually, the company launched commercial robotaxi services in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other cities soon followed.

But highways, despite some of these early tests, would remain inaccessible. Until today.

Waymo announced Wednesday that it will begin offering ride-hailing robots that use freeways in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, a critical expansion for the company that it says will cut driving times by up to 50 percent. That statistic could help attract a whole new group of users who need to travel between the many cities and suburbs in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, or speed up commutes in the greater Los Angeles and Phoenix metro areas.

Freeway use is also necessary for Waymo to offer rides to and from the San Francisco airport, a location the company is currently testing.

The service won’t be offered to all Waymo riders initially, the company said. Waymo riders who want to experience freeway rides can mark their preference in the Waymo app. Once the rider takes a ride, they can be combined with a freeway trip, according to the company.

The company’s robotaxi routes will now extend into San Jose, an expansion that will create a consolidated service area of ​​260 miles across the Peninsula, according to Waymo. The company said it will also begin drop-off and pick-up service at San Jose Mineta International Airport. It already offers curbside service to Sky Harbor Phoenix International Airport.

“Freeway driving is one of those things that’s very easy to learn but very difficult to master when you’re talking about full autonomy without a human driver as a backup and at scale,” Waymo co-CEO Dmitry Dolgov said in a media briefing with reporters. “It took time to get it right, with a particular focus on system security and reliability.”

Waymo robotaxis have been spotted on highways for months. TechCrunch took a test drive last year in the Phoenix area that included freeways. The company provides trips to employees for more than a year. It also expanded testing to include closed course and simulation

While many assume freeway driving is easier, it comes with its own challenges, principal software engineer Pierre Kreitmann said in a recent update. He noted that critical events occur less often on highways, meaning there are fewer opportunities to expose Waymo’s self-driving system to rare scenarios and demonstrate how the system performs when it really matters. The company chose to enhance public road driving with a combination of closed track testing and simulation.

This extensive testing and validation of the software was done to ensure vehicles smoothly and safely transition between freeways and surface roads and recognize and adapt to the unique road context around them, Kreitman said.

Waymo has also expanded its operational protocols, including how it coordinates with safety officials like the California Highway Patrol, now that its robots are on highways.