Waymo To Bring Driverless Rideshare Service To San Diego

SAN DIEGO, CA — Waymo plans to bring its driverless rideshare service to San Diego, making it the company's third California market as it continues to grow its self-driving technology across the United States.

San Diego is among four new cities, along with Denver, Las Vegas and Tampa, where Waymo will begin road mapping and testing its autonomous vehicles, the Alphabet-owned company announced this week.

Waymo already operates in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix and San Antonio, according to the company's website. It's also available via Uber app only in Atlanta and Austin.

In the new cities, rider-only operations will start with employees, the company said.

Eventually, it will expand to offer these services to the public, the company announced.

"While these rider-only operations will initially be for employees, we expect to welcome the public soon," Waymo said.

The testing is part of the company's broader effort to bring its driverless technology to more communities nationwide.

"These cities will join a growing network of over 10 cities where anyone can simply download an app and hail a fully autonomous Waymo vehicle to go where they want, 24/7, across our sizable service areas," Waymo said.

Those in San Diego and the other new cities can download the Waymo app to be notified when rides become available.

Patch Editor Tiffany Razzano contributed to this report.