The California Public Utilities Fee has permitted Waymo’s request to broaden its business robotaxi service space, opening the door for the Alphabet firm to deliver its driverless ride-hailing automobiles into extra communities south of San Francisco.

The corporate mentioned in a put up on X the approval won’t change its plans within the close to time period. In the present day, Waymo operates a business robotaxi service in all of San Francisco in addition to components of the Peninsula. It additionally gives driverless rides to paying clients all through a number of Silicon Valley cities, together with components of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Sunnyvale. In all, the corporate’s service space is about 85 sq. miles protecting San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

The corporate can be aiming to unlock access to the San Francisco International Airport, though these plans are on a for much longer timeline. Waymo was given permission in March to map roadways at SFO by way of a short lived allow. Waymo automobiles won’t function autonomously within the airport; staff will manually drive the automobiles to map the realm. However the allow indicators the start of a phased strategy to Waymo finally working commercially there.

Waymo gives 250,000 paid journeys every week throughout its operations, which extends to Los Angeles, Phoenix, and extra lately Austin.