Waymo starts carrying riders on freeways

Previously

In Parts 1 to 3, Waymo published a claims study, counted more than 4 million rides in 2024 and opened invite-only service in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and part of Sunnyvale. Its cars still kept to surface streets for public riders.

November 2025 — Waymo's robotaxis are taking public riders onto freeways for the first time. Here's what changed since Part 3 (March 2025), what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of Nov. 12, 2025)

Where: freeways in the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix and Los Angeles, for "a growing number of public riders"; Austin and Atlanta to follow. (Waymo)
Bay Area map: the entire Peninsula from San Francisco to San Jose, with curbside service at San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC). (Waymo)
Claimed benefit: ride times cut "by up to 50%," Waymo says. (TechCrunch)
Freeway pricing and costs: not disclosed.

How riders get it

Freeway trips are not offered to all riders at first, TechCrunch reported. Riders note a preference in the Waymo app and may then be matched with a freeway route. Waymo's post invites people to "sign up today to be among the first."

Waymo said the expansion rests on "millions of miles logged on freeways" with employees and guests in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. TechCrunch reported that employees had been taking freeway trips for more than a year, and that its own reporter took a Phoenix test ride with freeway segments the year before. TechCrunch added that freeway driving is essential for Waymo to offer rides to and from San Francisco's airport, where it was still testing (TechCrunch).

San Francisco International Airport was still in testing, TechCrunch said. Freeway access is essential to serve it, the outlet noted.

What it does to the map

Waymo's post gives examples of where freeways help: trips to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and "cruising from Downtown LA to Culver City." TechCrunch wrote that the time savings could attract riders who travel between the many towns and suburbs of the Bay Area, or who commute across the Los Angeles and Phoenix metros.

The Peninsula expansion also changes what Part 3 described. In March, Waymo opened an invite-only zone around Mountain View and Palo Alto. Now Waymo says service runs "all the way down to San Jose" from San Francisco. TechCrunch reported that Waymo already offered curbside service at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport. San Jose's airport now joins it, according to Waymo's post.

Why it took this long

"Freeway driving is one of those things that's very easy to learn, but very hard to master when we're talking about full autonomy without a human driver as a backup, and at scale," co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said in a media briefing, according to TechCrunch. "It took time to do it properly."

Principal software engineer Pierre Kreitmann said in a recent briefing, per TechCrunch, that critical events happen less often on freeways, giving fewer chances to expose the system to rare scenarios. Waymo added closed-course and simulation testing to its public-road miles, TechCrunch reported, so the cars could move smoothly between freeways and surface streets.

TechCrunch noted that engineers on the Google self-driving project ran their first autonomous tests on the freeway linking Silicon Valley to San Francisco 16 years earlier.

Working with police

Waymo expanded its operating protocols, including how it coordinates with the California Highway Patrol, TechCrunch said. Waymo's post says it "closely collaborated with safety officials." Neither described what happens when a freeway trip must stop on the shoulder.

What went wrong

No public freeway data. Waymo cited "millions of miles" but published no freeway-specific crash or disengagement figures with the launch.
Not for everyone. Only some riders who opt in get freeway trips.
SFO still out. San Francisco's main airport remained in testing, TechCrunch reported. (TechCrunch)
What we don't know yet: how stalls or breakdowns at freeway speed are handled, and how often the 50% time saving actually occurs.

Our follow-up question for Waymo

Will Waymo publish freeway-only safety figures, separate from its city-street miles?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

On Aug. 14, 2026, California regulators approved a broad expansion of Waymo's driverless service area and its new Ojai vehicle. See Part 6. (CPUC)

Sources

Waymo, The Waymo Team, “Taking riders further, safely with freeways,” Nov. 12, 2025. waymo.com
TechCrunch, Kirsten Korosec, “Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, San Francisco, and Phoenix,” Nov. 12, 2025. techcrunch.com
California Public Utilities Commission, Joshua Huneycutt, disposition letter on Waymo Advice Letters 0004 and 0004-A, Aug. 14, 2026. cpuc.ca.gov

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder