Waymo Robotaxis Now Serve San Francisco International Airport
▼ Summary
– Waymo has received approval to operate its robotaxi service to and from San Francisco International Airport (SFO), starting with a select group of riders before expanding.
– The service will use the SFO Rental Car Center for pickups and drop-offs, with Waymo planning to serve additional airports in the future.
– This expansion occurs despite ongoing safety investigations by federal agencies into incidents involving a child and the company’s vehicles around school buses.
– Access to major airports like SFO is critical to Waymo’s business model, which depends on geographic scale and high rider volume.
– The approval followed years of effort, including a failed 2023 permit attempt and a successful reboot of negotiations leading to permits in 2025.
Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have officially begun offering rides to and from San Francisco International Airport, marking a significant milestone for the company’s commercial expansion. After a lengthy period of negotiations, the Alphabet-owned service is now providing access to a limited group of riders, with plans to roll out the feature to all customers in the Bay Area over the next few months. For now, pickups and drop-offs are taking place at the SFO Rental Car Center, which passengers can reach via the airport’s AirTrain system.
Access to major airports like SFO is considered critical for Waymo’s business model, which relies on expanding its geographic reach and serving a high volume of passenger trips. The company’s co-CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, stated that airport service has been one of the most requested features from its rider community and helps strengthen its partnership with the city of San Francisco.
This achievement arrives amidst ongoing scrutiny of the company’s safety record. Waymo recently disclosed that one of its robotaxis was involved in an incident where a child was struck near a Santa Monica elementary school. The child sustained minor injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating that January event, along with a separate probe into the vehicles’ behavior around school buses. These investigations are being conducted in cooperation with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The path to operating at SFO involved years of effort, including a failed attempt to secure a mapping permit in 2023. Waymo resumed negotiations and finally obtained a permit in March of 2025, which allowed it to map the airport under specific data-sharing conditions. By September, the company and airport authority signed a testing and operations pilot permit, setting the stage for the current commercial launch.
Waymo has aggressively accelerated its growth over the past year, entering new metropolitan areas, enlarging its fleet, and incorporating freeway driving into its service domains. Its robotaxis now cover most of the San Francisco Bay Area and extend into Silicon Valley, where they also service San Jose Airport. The company’s operational footprint includes parts of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, and most of Phoenix, the latter already featuring curbside service at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
(Source: TechCrunch)
