Waymo has finally broken through its SFO logjam.
The company announced today that it will start offering robotaxi rides to a select group of passengers traveling to and from the San Francisco International Airport, a major step in Waymo’s effort to increase its footprint in the Bay Area. The company plans on gradually growing the number of riders until anyone who wants to can hail a Waymo at the airport, which the company says should happen “in the coming months.”
After years of back-and-forth negotiations with the airport’s operators, Waymo finally signed a “Testing and Operations Pilot Permit” with SFO in September 2025. Under the agreement, Waymo’s airport service would roll out in three phases, including testing vehicles with a human driver, testing without a driver, and eventually beginning commercial service. Waymo has successfully completed the first two phases of that plan and now is entering the third phase, said SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel.
But Waymo won’t have unfettered access to SFO’s terminals, at least not this year. Pickups and drop-offs will take place at SFO’s Rental Car Center, which is accessible to the terminals via the AirTrain. Additional locations, like the airport’s main terminals, will come later.
Yakel noted that starting in the rental car lot allows airport operators to “isolate” Waymo’s robotaxis from the busy passenger terminals, which he noted was similar to how Phoenix’s airport initially rolled out Waymo’s access. SFO may call for adjustments based on how well Waymo does during this phase of the pilot program, he said.
SFO wants to ‘isolate’ Waymo from its terminals for now
“This careful, deliberate approach makes us comfortable launching passenger operations, knowing full well we can continue to make adjustments as we move forward,” Yakel said.
Waymo currently operates 24/7 robotaxi services in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix (with Miami just now coming online). The company’s driverless services are also available in Atlanta and Austin, primarily through a partnership with Uber. To date, it only serves two airports: Phoenix and San Jose.
It’s been a rocky road to get to this point. According to The San Francisco Standard, the talks between Waymo and SFO have included rejection notes, a “harshly worded” cease-and-desist letter, and contentious contract negotiations. But despite all that, Waymo still got the greenlight late last year.
Airports represent a huge moneymaking opportunity for robotaxis, with airport trips accounting for an estimated 20 percent of human-driven ridehail car trips. And the announcement of passenger trips comes a few weeks before the Bay Area plans on hosting Super Bowl LX, as well as the FIFA World Cup later this year. Local officials have said they hope visitors will use Waymo instead of rental cars to help keep the roads clear.
