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After years of negotiations and false starts, Waymo is now allowed to operate a robotaxi service to and from the San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The Alphabet-owned company said in a blog post Thursday<\/a> it will begin offering access to SFO to a select number of riders before offering it to all customers in the coming months.<\/p>\n Pickups and drop-offs will occur at the SFO Rental Car Center, which is accessible via AirTrain. Waymo said it plans to serve additional airport locations in the future.<\/p>\n Waymo\u2019s SFO win comes as the company faces criticism and concerns about safety in some of the cities it operates. Waymo revealed Thursday that one of its robotaxis struck a child<\/a> near an elementary school in Santa Monica. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the January 23 incident, in which the child sustained minor injuries. Waymo is also being investigated<\/a> by the NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board over the illegal behavior of its robotaxis around school buses.<\/p>\n Access to airports, and particularly SFO, is critical to Waymo\u2019s business model, which hinges on geographic scale and a high volume of riders. <\/p>\n \u201cServing rides to and from San Francisco International Airport delivers one of the most requested features for our riders and further deepens our relationship with the city,\u201d Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a statement. <\/p>\n The company has accelerated its plans over the past year, launching into new cities, increasing its fleet size, and adding freeways to where it operates. Waymo robotaxis now service most of the San Francisco Bay Area and down into Silicon Valley, where it has access to the San Jose Airport. It also operates in parts of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, and most of Phoenix, including curbside service to the\u00a0Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n Waymo\u2019s push to operate at SFO has taken years. It tried and failed to secure a permit<\/a>\u00a0in 2023 to map SFO, a first step to bringing its robotaxis there. Waymo then rebooted negotiations<\/a> with the city and airport authority and was granted a permit in March 2025 that would allow it to map SFO with some data-sharing strings attached, according to language in the agreement viewed by TechCrunch at the time.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston, MA<\/span> By September, SFO and Waymo signed a testing and operations pilot permit, pushing the company closer to commercial operations<\/a> at the airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 23, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n