Waymo gets regulatory approval to expand across Bay Area and Southern California

Waymo continues to expand its reach with the robotaxi company post Friday that it is now “officially authorized to drive fully autonomously through a larger portion of the Golden State.”

Waymo already operates in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles (as well as outside California, in Atlanta, Austin and Phoenix). But cards published from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has shown that the company can now test and deploy its autonomous vehicles over a much larger area in both the Bay Area and Southern California.

In the Bay Area, Waymo’s approved operating areas now include most of the East Bay and North Bay (including Napa/Wine Country), as well as Sacramento. In Southern California, the company’s approved territory now extends from Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles) to San Diego.

The company will need additional regulatory approval before it can carry fare-paying passengers in some of these regions. according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

While Waymo’s post doesn’t offer many details about when it plans to actually offer rides in all these new areas, the company wrote: “Next stop: welcoming passengers to San Diego in mid-2026!”

The company had previously announced that it plans to launch in San Diego next year, along with Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, Seattle and Washington, DC.

There’s been a lot of Waymo expansion news in recent weeks, as the company announced it would be entering Minneapolis, New Orleans and Tampa; removes safety factors ahead of commercial launch in Miami; and will offer rides that use freeways in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix.

We discussed the growth of Waymo and other robotaxi companies on the latest episode of the Equity podcast. My co-host Sean O’Kane noted that as Waymo begins to provide more unfettered access in the Bay Area, people could be spending a lot more time in their robotaxis — so we could see them using the service in new, strange, or even dangerous ways.