Waymo recently announced plans to significantly expand their Waymo One ride-hailing service area in Metro Phoenix and growing in San Francisco to connect more communities and serve more riders.
In Metro Phoenix, one the fastest growing cities in the U.S., Waymo One will double their service area and connect the downtown and East Valley territories. This expansion will include Scottsdale for the first time, cover nearly all of Tempe and give additional access to Chandler and Mesa. Anyone in the area can hail a ride with the Waymo One app, whether they’re Arizona State University students commuting between campuses or pin-seeking golfers on vacation.
With this expansion, the company will now serve 180 square miles of The Valley — the largest fully autonomous service area in the world. It’s also nearly four times the size of the initial Waymo One service area when they opened the world’s first true fully autonomous ride-hail service to the public in 2020.
To serve the growing Phoenix ridership and such a large metro area, Waymo One has opened a second location to access Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport at the new 24th Street PHX SkyTrain® Station. They now offer a convenient airport pickup and drop off location no matter where you’re headed in the metro area. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport served more than 44 million passengers last year, or more than 120,000 per day, a significant commercial opportunity for Waymo’s growing operations.
In San Francisco, the company will continue to onboard new Waymo One riders and are giving their Trusted Testers access to more of the city, including Fisherman’s Wharf and North Beach. Waymo is the only company to offer fully autonomous rides to members of the public across the vast majority of the city — 24 hours a day. Waymo One has welcomed thousands of external San Franciscans to Waymo One since they began offering rider-only trips in late 2022 and have tens of thousands more people on the waitlist as they await the final permit to offer a paid service.
“Waymo One remains the only and largest 24/7 fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the world — serving thousands of rides in multiple key markets — and we’re scaling quickly,” said Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo Chief Product Officer. “These latest expansions in Metro Phoenix and San Francisco will help us provide more trips to more riders in more places, and are a big step forward on the road to growing our business.”
Waymo One is now serving over 10 thousand trips per week to public riders, not including employees. With this latest expansion, they intend for those numbers to accelerate rapidly to 10 times that scale by next summer. More than 150 million people use ride-hail services in the U.S., and with Phoenix and San Francisco as two of the most lucrative and fastest-growing markets, Waymo One is well positioned for continued growth as travelers commercialize their technology.
“When it comes to transportation options, convenience, safety and efficiency are key for Scottsdale’s 9.7 million annual visitors,” said Stephanie Pressler, director of community and government affairs at Experience Scottsdale. “Experience Scottsdale is excited that our visitors and residents alike will soon have a new option in Waymo as they move throughout Old Town Scottsdale’s shopping, entertainment, historic and arts districts, as well as travel to and from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.”
Over the next few months, the company plans to focus their efforts on growing ridership and increasing capacity in San Francisco and Metro Phoenix. They plan to build upon their strong relationships with community groups like Foundation for Senior Living and LightHouse for the Blind, plus exciting partnerships with organizations like the Stern Grove Festival and Arizona Diamondbacks.
If you are interested in taking a ride, download the Waymo One app on the App Store and Google Play.
