Waymo LLC plans to test a ride-hailing service in San Francisco and Phoenix that will use autonomous vehicles capable of operating without a safety driver behind the wheel. 

The Alphabet Inc. unit announced the move today. In San Francisco, Waymo already operates a fleet of autonomous vehicles that users can access through a mobile app. Currently, the vehicles operate with a safety driver onboard. Waymo’s decision to deploy cars without safety drivers in San Francisco indicates that its autonomous driving software has achieved a high degree of reliability.

The fully autonomous ride-hailing service will initially be accessible only to the Alphabet unit’s employees. Down the road, Waymo plans to make the vehicles available to consumers who participate in its Trusted Tester program.

In Arizona, Waymo first started operating fully autonomous vehicles without a human safety driver more than a year ago. The vehicles have been operating mainly in the Phoenix suburbs of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and Tempe. Today, Waymo announced plans to expand availability to downtown Phoenix. 

Waymo says that it’s now the only company simultaneously running a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in multiple cities. When including locations where the Alphabet unit’s vehicles operate with safety drives aboard, Waymo has carried out autonomous driving tests in more than a dozen states to date. 

Before launching its ride-hailing service in a new area, Waymo creates a custom map of local roads complete with details such as the location of stop signs. The Alphabet unit’s vehicles consult the map along with the data that they collect using their onboard sensors to inform driving decisions. Waymo’s vehicles have so far covered more than 20 million miles on public roads and more than 20 billion miles in simulations.

Operating an autonomous ride-hailing service on a large scale will require Waymo to make significant investments in vehicles and related infrastructure. The company has turned to outside investors to support its commercialization efforts. Last year, Waymo raised $2.5 billion in funding from a consortium that included parent Alphabet and a dozen outside backers.

General Motors Co.’s Cruise autonomous driving unit, a major Waymo rival, is developing an autonomous ride-hailing service of its own. The company made the service available to its employees in San Francisco last November and intends to launch a commercial version next year. 

Photo: Waymo