Waymo is broadening its operations, announcing on Friday that it has received “official authorization to operate fully driverless vehicles in even more parts of California.”
The company already offers services in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles, as well as in cities outside California like Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix. However, updated maps from the California Department of Motor Vehicles now indicate that Waymo is permitted to test and roll out its autonomous cars over a significantly wider region in both the Bay Area and Southern California.
Within the Bay Area, Waymo’s newly approved zones now cover much of the East Bay and North Bay, including Napa and Wine Country, as well as Sacramento. In Southern California, its permitted region now extends from Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, all the way down to San Diego.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Waymo will still need further regulatory clearance before it can begin transporting paying customers in some of these new locations.
While Waymo’s announcement doesn’t specify exactly when it will launch ride services in all these expanded areas, the company did state, “Next stop: welcoming riders in San Diego in mid-2026!”
Previously, Waymo revealed plans to expand to San Diego next year, along with other cities such as Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
Waymo has shared a flurry of expansion updates recently, including its upcoming entry into Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Tampa; the removal of safety drivers in preparation for its commercial launch in Miami; and the introduction of freeway rides in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix.
We covered Waymo’s rapid growth and the broader robotaxi industry on the latest episode of the Equity podcast.
