Waymo says it has doubled its weekly paid robotaxi trips to 100,000 since May
Waymo is now providing more than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S., according to a LinkedIn announcement by co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. That's double the 50,000 weekly paid trips the company reported in May.
A spokesperson for the Alphabet-owned driverless vehicle venture told CNBC on Tuesday that San Francisco now "serves the most trips" among the cities where Waymo operates its commercial service: San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin and Los Angeles.
Last month, Alphabet announced that it was investing an additional $5 billion into Waymo, which started as a self-driving project at the company in 2009.
On Monday, Waymo revealed details about its new, "generation 6" self-driving system, which should enable the company to offer driverless services in a wider array of weather conditions and without requiring as many costly cameras and sensors in its vehicles.
Waymo, which boasts around 700 vehicles in its fleet today, operates the only commercial robotaxi service in the U.S., Waymo One.
Waymo previously partnered with the ride-hailing giant Uber in Phoenix to bring its service to the app's existing users there. In a statement Tuesday, Waymo said that in June it added 90 square miles to its service in Phoenix, making it the largest autonomous ride-hailing "territory" in the states.
This month, Waymo also expanded its San Francisco robotaxi service into three new California areas — Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma — and is now testing its driverless vehicles on freeways around the San Francisco metro area.
While CNBC could not independently confirm the company's safety claims, Waymo also said that "over 14.8 million rider-only miles driven, the Waymo Driver was 3.5x better in avoiding crashes that caused injuries and 3x better