Waymo robotaxis is now providing rides to and from San Francisco International Airport

After years of negotiations and false starts, Waymo can now operate a robotaxi service to and from San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The Alphabet-owned company said in a blog post on Thursday that it will begin offering access to SFO to a select number of riders before offering it to all customers in the coming months.

Pickups and drop-offs will be made at the SFO Rental Car Center, accessible via AirTrain. Waymo said it plans to serve additional airport locations in the future.

Waymo’s SFO win comes as the company faces criticism and concerns about safety in some of the cities where it operates. Waymo revealed Thursday that one of its automated cars hit a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the Jan. 23 crash, in which the child suffered minor injuries. Waymo is also being investigated by the NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board over the illegal behavior of its robotaxis around school buses.

Access to airports, especially SFO, is critical to Waymo’s business model, which relies on geographic scale and large passenger volumes.

“Flight service to and from San Francisco International Airport provides one of the most requested features for our passengers and further deepens our relationship with the city,” Waymo co-CEO Tekdra Mawakana said in a statement.

The company has accelerated its plans over the past year, launching in new cities, increasing the size of its fleet, and adding highways to where it operates. Waymo’s robot car now serves most of the San Francisco Bay Area all the way to Silicon Valley, where it can reach San Jose Airport. It also operates in parts of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami and most of Phoenix, including curbside service to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Waymo’s push to work at SFO has taken years. It tried and failed to get a permit in 2023 to map SFO, a first step to bringing its robotics there. Waymo then relaunched negotiations with the city and airport authority and received a permit in March 2025 allowing it to map the SFO with some data-sharing conditions attached, according to language in the agreement seen by TechCrunch at the time.

By September, SFO and Waymo had signed a pilot permit for testing and operations, moving the company closer to commercial operations at the airport.