Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix (techcrunch.com)

Waymo announced it’s beginning to run robotaxi rides that use freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, expanding service coverage to San Jose and creating a unified 260-mile service area. The move — available initially as an opt‑in preference in the Waymo app rather than for all riders — promises up to 50% shorter trips, enables airport connections (including curbside service at San Jose Mineta and testing to serve SFO), and removes a major geographic limitation that has constrained robo‑taxi utility across sprawling metro regions. Technically, the rollout reflects substantial validation work: months of on‑road freeway sightings, employee trips, closed‑course testing and heavy simulation to expose the system to rare but critical events that occur less frequently on highways. Waymo emphasizes safe transitions between surface streets and high‑speed freeways, context recognition, and expanded operational protocols — including coordination with highway safety officials — to run without a human backup at scale. For the AI/ML community, this highlights the role of large-scale simulation, scenario augmentation, and operational engineering (not just perception models) in moving autonomy from controlled demonstrations to commercially useful, safety‑critical deployments.