Alphabet parent CFO Ruth Porat said last month that Waymo will receive at least $5 billion in the coming years to develop its self-driving ride-hailing business. Now, new areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles are becoming available to Waymo One service customers.
As Reuters notes, in both cities, several new areas will join the service area of Waymo’s unmanned taxis, including part of the prestigious Hollywood. Last month, all interested customers in San Francisco received access to Waymo One services, although previously they had to wait in line for months. In the capital of Arizona, Phoenix, similar measures were taken by Waymo four years ago.
Uber said this week that its customers used self-driving taxis six times more in the second quarter than a year earlier. This was largely made possible thanks to partnership agreements with developers of unmanned taxis, including Waymo. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently promised to unveil a driverless taxi prototype on August 10th, but postponed the event to October to make important changes to the vehicle’s design.