Waymo gets a green light to serve the airport in San Francisco

Waymo is now allowed to test the Robotaxi service at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), which is a great victory for the company as it seeks to expand its services, process more popular destinations and generate revenue.

After years of underdeveloped negotiations, Waymo signed a “experimental and operations” with SFO, The mayor of San Francisco Daniel Lori said in a statement. Under the agreement, Waymo will offer its service to SFO in three phases, including vehicle testing with a human driver, a driver without a driver test, and eventually commercial service.

Waymo will start its tests with employees before the public’s members ultimately invite the flights to and from the airport. Initials and slopes will be held at SFO’s Kiss & Fly Lot, which can be accessed to the stations via Artrain.

Waymo works in five cities, but currently only one airport provides: Phoenix Sky Port. The company has been closed in negotiations with SFO for several years because it seeks to assure the organizers that its vehicles can deal with their chaotic environments, with thousands of cars, taxis, shuttle and passengers constantly every day.

But the airports represent a huge opportunity to make money for robotics, as airport flights represent an estimated 20 percent of the car flights driven by humans. Waymo will need to reach the airport if he hopes to compete with Uber and Lyft – nothing about earning enough money to make a profit.