Waymo is now offering greater than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides per week within the US, in line with a LinkedIn announcement by its co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. That is double the 50,000 weekly paid journeys the corporate reported in Might.

A spokesperson for the Alphabet-owned driverless automobile enterprise informed CNBC on Tuesday that San Francisco now “serves essentially the most journeys” among the many cities the place Waymo operates its industrial service: San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin and Los Angeles.

Final month, Alphabet introduced that it was investing an extra $5 billion into Waymo, which began as a self-driving challenge on the firm in 2009.

On Monday, Waymo revealed particulars about its new, “technology 6” self-driving system, which ought to allow the corporate to supply driverless companies in a wider array of climate circumstances and with out requiring as many pricey cameras and sensors in its autos.

Waymo, which boasts round 700 autos in its fleet right this moment, operates the one industrial robotaxi service within the U.S., Waymo One.

Waymo beforehand partnered with the ridehailing big Uber in Phoenix to convey its service to the app’s current customers there. In a press release on Tuesday, Waymo famous that in June 2024, it added 90 sq. miles to its service in Phoenix as effectively, making it the biggest autonomous ride-hailing “territory” within the states.

This month, Waymo additionally expanded its San Francisco robotaxi service into three new California areas — Daly Metropolis, Broadmoor and Colma — and is now testing its driverless autos on freeways across the San Francisco metro space.

Whereas CNBC couldn’t independently affirm the corporate’s security claims, Waymo additionally says that “over 14.8 million rider-only miles pushed, the Waymo Driver was 3.5x higher in avoiding crashes that triggered accidents and 3x higher in avoiding police-reported crashes than human drivers.”

Though industrial robotaxi companies from Didi and Pony.ai are up and operating in China, Waymo presently faces restricted home competitors. GM-owned Cruise skilled setbacks that took its driverless autos off the highway quickly, and corporations together with Uber and Ford have shuttered their efforts to develop robotaxis.

Elon Musk’s electrical automobile maker, Tesla, has been promising it will flip prospects’ current autos into driverless automobiles with a software program replace for years. Nevertheless, the corporate has not but produced a automotive able to serving as a robotaxi. Tesla plans to unveil its CyberCab, or devoted robotaxi, at a hotly-anticipated occasion on October 10.