Waymo starts robotaxi services at San Antonio International Airport

Waymo’s robotaxi service will go live at its fourth airport today: San Antonio International. The company said that its cars will drop off passengers on the sidewalk at the stations, and transport passengers in the designated ride-sharing area at the airport.

This is the first airport Waymo serves in Texas, where the company currently operates in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Houston. Waymo has been offering airport pick-up and drop-off services at Sky Harbor International in Phoenix for a few years now, and has begun serving San Francisco and San Jose Mineta International Airports within the past few months.

Waymo launched its robotaxi service in San Antonio in February, though it’s still not fully available to the public yet. The company has been running an advocacy-based system and scaling it on a rolling basis, an approach it has used in Dallas, Houston and Orlando as well. The company said Tuesday that its waiting list in San Antonio is now “[t]ns thousands of people” and that it plans to make its service available “to all public passengers soon.”

This phased approach is one way Waymo remains cautious in a year of rapid expansion. The company said it wants to launch in about 20 new cities this year, including Tokyo and London. Its bot service is currently in 10 cities and operates more than 500,000 paid rides a week, nearly double the number it was operating at this time last year. Waymo is expected to begin offering rides in its newest vehicle, a truck made by Zeekr called Ojai, sometime this year.

The company has shared data that it says proves its robotaxis are actually safer than human drivers and reduce serious accidents. However, Waymo still faces new obstacles as it expands.

Waymo’s robo-taxis illegally passed school buses that were picking up or dropping off children, a problem being investigated by both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It has released software updates to address the issue, but is still working with local officials in Austin, where most school bus accidents have been documented, to figure out how to make its automated robot behave around buses, Wired reported.

The NTSB and NHTSA are also investigating the company after one of its automated vehicles hit a child at low speed in Santa Monica. The child reportedly suffered minor injuries, and Waymo said its robo-taxi slowed from 17 mph to 6 mph before crashing.

We’re also learning more about all things Waymo’s operations on the ground as it expands. The company has dozens of so-called “remote assistance” employees based in the United States and the Philippines who help Waymo’s robotic car navigate difficult or unexpected scenarios. Waymo also relies on a team of “roadside assistance” workers — as well as first responders — in the rare cases when a car actually breaks down, as TechCrunch recently explained.