Waymo officials announced Friday that Waymo One riders can now access an additional 45 square miles of metro Phoenix, which now covers 225 square miles of the Valley.
The expanded service area stretches further north to uptown Phoenix and as far as Gainey Ranch. The service also grows south of the city to South Mountain Village and east to more of downtown Mesa.
"It’s been just over two months since our last expansion in metro Phoenix and today we’re back with an additional 45 square miles to explore," said Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo's chief product officer who made the July 7 announcement on Twitter. "Let the Waymo driver take the wheel from Camelback Mountain to downtown Chandler and everything in between."
Newly added destinations popular with Phoenicians and visitors alike include Camelback Mountain, McCormick Ranch, The Farm at South Mountain and many award-winning resorts across the Valley.
In addition to the expansion, Waymo One is implementing the following key software updates to increase reliability and usability of its service:
- Riders should experience improved pick-ups and drop-offs and more confident, predictable driving maneuvers.
- Pedestrians should have more human-like interactions with the vehicles, as they plan to start adding new ways for vehicles to communicate intent with other road users through audio and visual cues.
- A plethora of other back-end improvements should also result in more consistent driving performance and fleet efficiencies.
To service such a large area and better accommodate longer trips, Waymo officials said Waymo One continues to test its vehicles on the freeway with employees and an autonomous specialist behind the wheel.
Waymo One is serving well over 10 thousand trips per week to public riders, not including employees. This latest expansion and strong ridership in the greater Phoenix area will play a large role as the company continues to scale over time.
