Waymo has begun offering freeway driving routes in three major United States cities in its driverless robotaxis.
The rides will be available on freeways across the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix and Los Angeles, “when a freeway route is meaningfully faster”.
The Alphabet-owned company also plans to expand the feature to other locations like Austin and Atlanta in the future.
Before this, the driverless taxis have taken passengers on smaller highways and side streets.
The new expansion will mark the first time that the vehicles will take payment from public riders to go on freeways with higher speed limits.
“Freeway driving is one of those things that’s very easy to learn, but very hard to master when we’re talking about full autonomy without a human driver as a backup, and at scale,” Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said at a press event ahead of the announcement.
“It took time to do it properly.”
The Waymo vehicles will typically travel up to a freeway’s posted speed of around 65mph, according to the company.
The company said it collaborated with officials in the areas to ensure the vehicles were safe.
“This experience, reinforced by comprehensive testing as well as extensive operational preparation, supports the delivery of a safe and reliable service,” the company said in a blog post.
“We've also closely collaborated with safety officials to seamlessly support this new phase of service. “
Waymo said freeway access will not be available to all riders at first, and those who want to enable it can select their preference in the Waymo app to be matched with a freeway trip.
In its own safety data, Waymo said there are 91% fewer crashes involving serious injury and 92% fewer crashes involving pedestrians compared to a human driver, while acknowledging the vehicles are still learning.
Despite this, the vehicles have recently been in some high-profile incidents, including passing a stopped school bus with flashing lights in Atlanta, an illegal U-turn in San Bruno on the San Francisco Peninsula, and a fatal crash involving a beloved neighbourhood cat.
Waymo has announced other plans to expand to Miami, San Diego and Washington, D.C. in 2026. It is also testing its vehicles in New York City, Tokyo and plans to offer rides in London next year.
