Waymo's Robotaxis Can Now Use the Highway, Speeding Up Longer Trips

Waymo's Robotaxis Can Now Use the Highway, Speeding Up Longer Trips The Alphabet company's self-driving cars are opening up shop in more and more cities. When Google's self-driving car project began testing in the Bay Area back in 2009, its engineers focused on highways by sending its sensor-laden vehicles cruising down Interstate 280, which runs the length of Silicon Valley's peninsula. More than 15 years later, the cars are back on the freeway--this time without drivers. On Tuesday, the project, now an Alphabet subsidiary we all know as Waymo, announced that its robotaxi service would now drive on freeways in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. The new service marks another technical leap for Waymo, whose robotaxis currently serve five US metros: Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area.