- Downtown Phoenix: Now offering paid rider-only trips to Waymo employees and Trusted Testers.
- Phoenix Sky Harbor: Currently offering trips from downtown Phoenix to the airport for Waymo employees, with an autonomous specialist in the driver’s seat.
- San Francisco: Currently testing rider-only trips to Waymo employees and paid trips to Trusted Testers with an autonomous specialist in the driver’s seat.
- Phoenix East Valley: Currently offering rider-only trips to members of the public.
Waymo maintains that it is the only business delivering completely autonomous public journeys in numerous locations — the crucial term being “multiple cities.” Cruise, a competitor AV business sponsored by General Motors, offers paid autonomous trips in Downtown San Francisco, but only at night.
Waymo’s expansion of its driverless service to Phoenix reflects the company’s increasing confidence in its cars’ ability to operate safely and effectively in more crowded metropolitan situations. Cruise likes to point out that it is only focused on large cities like San Francisco, as opposed to Waymo’s strategy of beginning in dry, flat, sunny, and less congested regions like Chandler. Those criticisms are likely to lose traction in the future.
