Waymo just added freeway rides. It shaved 15 minutes off my robotaxi commute.

• Waymo will begin freeway rides for some users in SF, LA, and Phoenix on Wednesday.
• The company is also expanding its fleet to over 1,000 robotaxis for the Bay Area region.
• Business Insider recently demoed a freeway ride with Waymo near San Francisco.

Waymo is offering freeway rides to select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, starting Wednesday, positioning the Alphabet company as the only fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the US taking public passengers on high-speed roads.

The move is a critical milestone for Waymo.

The robotaxi company has been testing fully autonomous rides on public freeways with employees for more than a year. Opening freeway routes to its paid service signals that the company believes its autonomous system is safe enough for public riders.

“Our approach has always been guided by safety as our top priority, and it will remain so going forward as we take this next step and as we continue to roll out responsibly,” Dmitri Dolgov, co-CEO of Waymo, said during a media presentation on Friday.

Freeway access could also make Waymo a stronger ride-hailing competitor within its respective coverage areas; Waymo’s robotaxis will take some of the same routes that human drivers typically take, resulting in more efficient commute times.

During a demonstration with Waymo on Friday afternoon near San Francisco, I took a brief ride that would have taken an extra 17 minutes in a Waymo robotaxi unable to access the 101 freeway.

Here’s what happened.

The expansion

Waymo will begin with freeway rides for members of its Trusted Tester program before gradually rolling out the new feature to more riders.

Users sign up for the program on the Waymo app. A spokesperson was unable to share the number of riders participating in the beta testing program.

The freeway access will not include Austin and Atlanta, where Waymo has a partnership with Uber. A Waymo spokesperson told Business Insider that the company will focus on those two cities next.

Within its coverage area for Phoenix, LA, and SF, Waymo’s robotaxis will drive on most, but not all, major freeway.

In the SF Bay Area, Waymos can take 101, 80, 280, 380, 92, 85, and 237. In LA: 5, 90, 110, 10, 2, 405, 187, 60, and 105. In Phoenix: I-10, I-17, Loop 202, and US 60.

Waymo didn’t directly address why certain freeways were excluded from the rollout. During a Q&A session on Friday, Jacopo Sannazzaro, Waymo’s product manager lead for freeway rides, said the company may “occasionally prioritize or deprioritize some segments.”

In the Bay Area, Waymo is expanding its coverage area to San Jose, including curbside service to and from San Jose Mineta International Airport. That amounts to a service area of over 260 square miles in the Bay Area, according to Waymo.

A Waymo spokesperson told Business Insider that the company will increase its fleet from over 800 robotaxis to more than 1,000 cars to accommodate the expansion.

Shorter commute time

The benefit of freeway rides is simple but crucial: shorter commute times.

My freeway demo ride with a Waymo spokesperson on Friday began near YouTube’s office in San Bruno and ended at a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel about 2 miles away.

Taking surface roads increases the route length by about a mile, according to Google Maps, and the difference in commute time was significant.

With access to the 101 freeway, my ride began at 12:38 p.m. and ended at 12:48 p.m. — exactly 10 minutes.

Just before the ride started, I checked my Waymo app, which didn’t have freeway access at the time. I noticed that my non-freeway commute would’ve been about 27 minutes long to reach the same destination.

“From a rider’s point of view, taking the freeway instead of surface streets can, of course, make a huge difference,” Naomi Guthrie, Waymo’s rider research lead, said at the Friday presentation. “A trip from San Francisco to Mountain View, or even just between towns within the Peninsula, can be up to 50% faster.”

The ride experience itself felt both jarring and anticlimactic at the same time. Jarring because I’ve never been in a Waymo that would dare to go beyond 45 mph in San Francisco; anti-climactic because the experience felt like any normal highway ride.

As the Waymo made a right turn onto the 101 on-ramp, I stared at the digital odometer, watching the robotaxi quietly speed up from 40 to 50 to 65 miles per hour — the speed limit for most Bay Area freeways.

Sannazzaro, the Waymo product manager, said that the Waymo Driver will stick close to the posted limit. A Waymo spokesperson said the robotaxi will sometimes go below or above the speed limit to stay with the flow of traffic or for safety reasons.

During my brief ride, I noticed that the Waymo didn’t move into the so-called “fast” lanes on the left of the freeway. While the left lanes are not a license to speed, it’s not uncommon to see human drivers exceed 70 mph.

A Waymo spokesperson told me the robotaxi will not avoid the left lanes.

On my way back to the YouTube office, the Waymo took the 101 South for a 14-minute commute.

There were no notable incidents, but the rides reminded me of my experience in Austin a few months ago, when I tried Tesla’s robotaxi and a Waymo through Uber and saw the barriers of a robotaxi service that can’t use freeways.

After today, San Francisco, Phoenix, and LA may no longer experience those problems.