Waymo approved to start testing autonomous vehicles at San Francisco International Airport

Waymo has been granted a licence to commencement investigating its autonomous vehicles astatine San Francisco International Airport, up of the motorboat of a commercialized service.

The San Francisco mayor’s bureau announced Tuesday that the airport, known arsenic SFO, and Waymo person signed a “Testing and Operations Pilot Permit” aft years of back-and-forth negotiations. The woody with SFO comes conscionable 2 weeks aft Waymo was cleared to commencement investigating astatine nearby San Jose Mineta International airport.

SFO is not the archetypal airdrome that Waymo volition serve; the institution has been operating astatine Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airdrome since 2023. But SFO has been a people for Waymo for conscionable arsenic long, if not longer, arsenic it’s the biggest airdrome serving the company’s location basal of Silicon Valley.

Airport authorities initially rebuffed Waymo back successful 2023, but this twelvemonth Waymo was granted a licence to commencement mapping the airport, a wide indicator that the relationship had thawed.

The newly-granted licence allows Waymo to determination guardant successful 3 phases. The archetypal volition spot Waymo trial its AVs successful autonomous mode with a “trained specialist” down the wheel. The 2nd volition impact Waymo investigating rider work with employees and airdrome staff. The 3rd signifier volition let Waymo to commencement offering paid rides.

Once Waymo enters that 3rd phase, the institution says it volition connection pickups and dropoffs astatine the airport’s “Kiss & Fly area,” which requires an AirTrain thrust to scope the terminals. The institution says it intends to “explore different locations astatine the airdrome successful the future.”

Offering rides to and from SFO would beryllium the latest successful a increasing database of accomplishments for Waymo this year. The institution has expanded to aggregate caller cities, with an expanding fig of partners, similar Uber, and much are connected the skyline for 2026. Waymo has been increasing its work country successful Silicon Valley arsenic well, making work to SFO look progressively inevitable.