On Friday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles arrested Alphabet, Inc. published a document outlining a list of newly approved areas of coverage for robotaxi service Waymo, and the implications could be massive.
The areas where “testing and deployment” of Waymo driverless taxis will now be legally tolerated by the state include two vast, apparently continuous areas of geography filled with interconnected urban population centers, suburbs, exurbs, and the rural lands between them. It includes (in alphabetical order) Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, Napa, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Ventura, and Yolo counties.
The new map covers much of California wine country, and the remainder of the Bay Area. This adds considerable coverage even in densely populated parts of Southern California. For example, most of Orange and San Diego counties are now state-sanctioned Waymo zones, and they each have millions of residents. If Waymo follows through on this approval with the rollout of its service in all of these areas, it could mean travelers could travel in Waymo vehicles for hours, allowing tourists to take longer day trips. Out-of-state residents can take a Waymo ride to Los Angeles International Airport.
Famous stretches of California highways—and freeway– Potentially driverless taxi traffic could be opened up. You can take the scenic route up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to Malibu, or reenact the first episode of The OC in a driverless way by riding from Chino to Newport Beach.
Of course, the cost of doing any of these things can be tempting. According to my calculations, at an average of $11.22 per kilometer cited by a Waymo price analysis from June, if the current pricing pattern holds, it will cost $2,636 to travel from San Diego to Malibu on Waymo — although a new pricing pattern will likely emerge for longer trips. According to fare estimator site RideGuru, a similar ride in a human-driven Lyft or Uber would cost about $200.
Waymo says it has no specific plans to launch its service in most of these newly approved areas, although it is eyeing one of these areas. “We appreciate the DMV’s approval of our expanded fully autonomous operations,” a Waymo representative told CBS News, who claimed the company’s next expansion “will be to San Diego, where we will welcome our first riders in mid-2026.”