Waymo is putting its robotaxis back on the highway. The Alphabet self-driving unit said on Wednesday that it will gradually return to freeway trips across its service area, starting with Phoenix — the market where its commercial driverless service was born — with Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area next in the coming days.
Two-Month Freeway Pause Ends
Waymo halted freeway operations in May after identifying at least 13 instances of its robotaxis driving into closed highway construction zones. That led to a voluntary June recall of nearly 4,000 vehicles — the sixth in Waymo's history — filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. No injuries or collisions were reported. The company said it has since pushed software updates that improve "scene recognition and routing" around construction zones and is now resuming freeway operations "across its entire service area, including areas with construction."
Why It Matters
Freeway routes are strategically important for Waymo: they shorten commute times, unlock airport trips, and are a prerequisite for the "million rides a week" throughput the company has publicly targeted. Waymo turned freeways back on in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles last November, added Miami months later, and the surprise May pause frustrated riders who took to social media asking why routes went back to surface streets.
Timing With Fresh Regulatory Scrutiny
The restart comes as robotaxi regulation heats up. This week Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) introduced a bill directing federal regulators to set minimum national safety standards for AV operators after incidents in which self-driving vehicles blocked ambulances, drove into active crime scenes and failed to recognize traffic cones and flares. Waymo has also been quietly detaching from Uber in Austin and Atlanta, planning its own consumer app by 2028.
What's Next
Miami and Austin are expected to follow Phoenix, LA and the Bay Area onto freeways. Waymo has told regulators it now operates roughly 3,500–4,000 vehicles and gives about half a million paid rides a week, up ten-fold from mid-2024. The freeway restart is the last operational lever it needs to lift that number as it targets one million weekly rides by year-end.
Reporting based on TechCrunch, Waymo's public posts and az family coverage.