Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides to and from San Francisco International Airport

After years of negotiations and mendacious starts, Waymo is present allowed to run a robotaxi work to and from the San Francisco International Airport. The Alphabet-owned institution said successful a blog station Thursday it volition statesman offering entree to the airport, known arsenic SFO, to a prime fig of riders earlier offering it to each customers successful the coming months.

Pickups and dropoffs volition hap astatine the SFO Rental Car Center, which is accessible via AirTrain. Waymo said it plans to service further airdrome locations successful the future.

Waymo’s SFO triumph comes arsenic the institution faces disapproval and concerns astir information successful immoderate of the cities it operates. Waymo revealed Thursday that 1 of its robotaxis struck a child adjacent an simple schoolhouse successful Santa Monica. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the January 23 incident, successful which the kid sustained insignificant injuries. Waymo is besides being investigated by NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board implicit the amerciable behaviour of its robotaxis astir schoolhouse buses.

Access to airports, and peculiarly SFO, is captious to Waymo’s concern model, which hinges connected geographic standard and a precocious measurement of riders.

“Serving rides to and from San Francisco International Airport delivers 1 of the astir requested features for our riders and further deepens our narration with the city,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said successful a statement.

The institution has accelerated its plans implicit the past year, launching into caller cities, expanding its fleet size, and adding freeways to wherever it operates. Waymo robotaxis present work astir of the San Francisco Bay Area and down into Silicon Valley, wherever it besides has entree to the San Jose Airport. It besides operates successful parts of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, and astir of Phoenix, including curbside work to the Sky Harbor Phoenix International Airport.

Waymo’s propulsion to run astatine SFO has taken years. It tried and failed to unafraid a permit in 2023 to representation SFO, a archetypal measurement to bringing its robotaxis there. Waymo past rebooted negotiations with the metropolis and airdrome authorization and was granted a licence successful March 2025 that would let it to representation SFO with immoderate data-sharing strings attached, according to connection successful the statement viewed by TechCrunch astatine the time.

By September, SFO and Waymo signed a investigating and operations aviator permit, pushing the institution person to commercial operations astatine the airport.