Alphabet's Waymo has Secured Approval to Expand its Driverless Ride-Hailing Service to San Jose

The approval of Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), to extend its driverless ride-hailing services to San Jose and other areas of the South Bay marks a significant regulatory milestone. According to Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s CEO Sundar Pichai, Waymo is forming alliances with automakers, ride-hailing service Uber, and operations and maintenance companies that look after its fleets of vehicles.

On May 19, 2025, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) formally authorized Waymo's Passenger Safety Plan, paving the road for the tech giant to extend its service area across the Peninsula and beyond San Francisco. This regulatory development follows Waymo's March submission of a proposal to the CPUC outlining its goals to increase its commercial footprint in the Bay Area.

The business wrote in a Monday post on X:

"We’re very excited to share that the CPUC has approved our application to operate our fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in the South Bay and nearly all of San Jose!” “While this won’t change our operations in the near-term, we’re looking forward to bringing the benefits of Waymo One to more of the Bay Area in the future."

"Waymo embodies our region's spirit of innovation — so it's about time they joined us here in the Capital of Silicon Valley," remarked San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who expressed early support for the expansion.

The California DMV is assessing new rules for self-driving car operations, which is why Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s Waymo is expanding at a rapid pace. As of April, the business reported providing over 250,000 Waymo paid rides per week around the United States, continuing to scale its commercial deployment. In the same month, Waymo announced its first collaboration with Toyota to explore the incorporation of autonomous technology into privately owned automobiles.

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