Waymo Receives License to Expand Its Service Area in California More Than a Tenfold

A new day, and another new announcement from Waymo. This time, Waymo has received a license from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to massively expand its robotaxi operations—and when I say massively, I mean really massively.

The license now covers the greater Los Angeles area from Thousand Oaks and Santa Clarita in the north down to and including San Diego on the Mexican border, a distance of about 170 miles (275 kilometers). San Francisco, on the other hand, is being expanded from San José in the south to Sea Ranch in the north, including Sacramento, with distances of up to 150 miles (240 kilometers).

This means that the approved operating area has increased almost tenfold. Previously, the counties of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara were covered, with a total area of 5,843 square miles (15,134 square kilometers).

County	qml	km2
Alameda	739	1,914
Contra Costa	716	1,854
Los Angeles	4,058	10,510
Marin	520	1,348
Napa	748	1,938
Orange	791	2,048
Riverside	7,206	18,665
Sacramento	965	2,498
San Bernardino	20,057	51,947
San Diego	4,207	10,895
San Francisco	47	121
San Mateo	448	1,161
Santa Clara	1,290	3,341
Santa Cruz	445	1,153
Solano	822	2,128
Sonoma	1,576	4,081
Ventura	1,843	4,774
Yolo	1,015	2,628
Summe	47,493	123,006

To put that into relation: Germany covers 138,070 square miles (357,600 square kilometers), Austria 32,383 square miles (83,871 square kilometers), and Switzerland 15,940 square miles (41,284 square kilometers). In other words, the approved operating areas are as large as Austria and Switzerland combined, or cover a third of Germany.

The approval applies to the robotaxi fleet based on the Jaguar iPace and the Zeekr RT. The robotaxi are allowed to drive all times of day and night, at all rain, fog, and other conditions, and at all speeds.

This article was also published in German.