SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The autonomous vehicle company Waymo announced on Tuesday its driverless ride-hailing service in San Francisco, U.S. state of California, is no longer limited to people approved off a waitlist.
The Alphabet-owned company has been permitted to operate paid driverless ride-hailing in San Francisco at all hours with no restrictions on geographic area or fleet size.
Users can hail a Waymo robotaxi through the company's app. Nearly 300,000 people in San Francisco had signed up for its waitlist before Tuesday, the company said.
Waymo is the only autonomous vehicle company commercially operating in California and plans to continue expanding in the state. The company said that its San Francisco fleet totals about 300 cars.
About two-thirds of riders use the robotaxis to commute to work or school, according to Waymo. "With tens of thousands weekly trips, our Waymo One service provides safe, sustainable, and reliable transportation to locals and visitors to the city alike," the company said in a blog post.
San Francisco becomes the second city where anyone can hail a driverless car. Waymo's robotaxi service has been open to the public in metro Phoenix since 2020, and the company recently expanded its service area there to cover 315 square miles, including the region's largest airport.
Waymo has also started testing driverless rides in seven cities in San Mateo County and on Bay Area freeways with human safety drivers behind the wheel. The company is operating its ride-hailing service in a 63-square-mile area of Los Angeles with limited users, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle. ■
