Waymo’s Autonomous RoboTaxis Will Soon Drive On Local Freeways

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City roads and local roads will always be necessary for transportation, but the highways and byways are critical for traveling long distances fast, or at the least, in a reasonable amount of time. If you’re traveling cross-country, for example, you might take a few backroads here and there but most of your trip will be spent on a highway. Freeways are also important locally to some degree, and that’s why it’s big news that a ride-sharing service is hitting the thoroughfare in some states. More specifically, Waymo is bringing the “autonomous driving age” to freeways in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Eventually, it also plans to expand access to Austin, Atlanta, and beyond.

Waymo says the expansion will allow its trips to be “even more convenient and efficient,” especially if you’re headed between remote destinations, like Sky Harbor International Airport to Downtown LA, or commuting into the city from outside of it. To keep up with this change, Waymo is also expanding its service territory in the greater Bay Area, and the other cities where it will be offering freeway drives. There will be more places to hail Waymo’s rides and more places to travel in them.

Waymo says it has “closely collaborated with safety officials,” in order “to seamlessly support this new phase of service.”

Why Is This Big News?

Until now, in the cities where Waymo operates its driverless ride-sharing services, the cars were a common sight downtown and in more populated areas. But this new freeway measure and the expansion of its territories means those cars will be traveling more openly on American roads, so everyone will start to see them elsewhere. Not just that, the expansion means that those who couldn’t use the service before in surrounding areas, will likely now be able to.

It also opens up the ride-sharing opportunities for those that live in said areas. For example, Waymo customers can now take a much longer ride from San Francisco City Hall to San Jose’s Airport, a trip of about 45 miles. That tracks with the freeway openings as typically, drives where you’d take a highway or freeway are much longer in duration than, say, a drive across town. Imagine taking a ride in a Waymo to your cruise, leaving your car at home and saving money on parking costs. Or, doing the same for a flight out to see family for the holidays.

Of course, there’s also the point that the more accepted and more common this technology becomes, the more widespread we’ll see its adoption, including in new cities all across the country.

What About Safety Concerns?

Driverless vehicles are not without their risks. But Waymo’s safety statistics point to a reduction in dangerous events with its autonomous vehicles on the road. There are 91% fewer serious injuries or crashes related to accidents, 80% fewer injury-causing events, and 92% fewer pedestrian crashes with injuries in locations where Waymo vehicles operate. In addition, Waymo vehicles have driven about 16.46 million rider-only miles successfully in Los Angeles, without a human driver at the wheel. They have also driven 29.88 million miles in San Francisco, 46.39 million miles in Pheonix, and 3.22 million miles in Austin. That’s about 96 million rider-only miles driven total, as of June, 2025.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that on the road to full automation — a time when cars and trucks drive us instead of being operated by a human — technological improvements will “offer transformative safety opportunities at their maturity.” In other words, this technology and driverless vehicles may soon help us significantly cut down on vehicle-related accidents and injuries. A driverless vehicle system will never tire, never get distracted and can usually make better decisions when facing an emergency.

There’s also a point to be made that the State of California has some progressive driverless vehicle regulations in place to deal with the changing landscape. That’s not necessarily true all across the country, at least not yet. In fact, there are only 21 states (as of 2023) that allow the deployment of autonomous vehicles, six of which only have laws pertaining to autonomous semi trucks, not consumer-grade options.

How Does This Affect Vehicle Ownership?

In general, consumer willingness to use a ride-sharing service or autonomous vehicle options, like Waymo’s robotaxis, is higher than the willingness to own. This is having an impact on total car ownership causing a general decline if reports prove true.

It’s difficult to imagine but there may come a day soon when there’s no need to own your own vehicle, maintain it, or find spaces for it — whether parking in a public lot or in a garage at home. That might seem somewhat dystopian now, especially if you’re used to driving everywhere, but Waymo’s expansion to local freeways shows that day could come sooner rather than later.

For now, it’s still a good idea to brush up on maintaining the vehicles you own and taking them to the necessary repair shops regularly, or doing it all yourself if you’re handy. By the way, for that last bit, it’s always good to have some helpful tools for diagnosing vehicle problems, engine related, mechanical, or electric.

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