Waymo gets regulatory approval to expand across Bay Area and Southern California

Waymo continues to expand its reach, with the robotaxi companypostingFriday that it’s now “officially authorized to drive fully autonomously across more of the Golden State.” Waymo already operates in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles (and outside California as well, in Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix). But mapspublishedby California’s Department of Motor Vehicles showed that the company can now test and deploy its autonomous vehicles across a much larger area in both the Bay Area and Southern California. In the Bay Area, Waymo’s approved areas of operation now include most of the East Bay and North Bay (including Napa/Wine Country), as well as Sacramento. In Southern California, the company’s approved territory now stretches from Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles) to San Diego. We're officially authorized to drive fully autonomously across more of the Golden State.Next stop: welcoming riders in San Diego in mid-2026! ☀️pic.twitter.com/mWs4tISPiq The company will need additional regulatory approval before it can carry paying passengers in some of these regions,according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Although Waymo’s post doesn’t offer many details about when it plans to actually start offering rides in all these new areas, the company wrote, “Next stop: welcoming riders in San Diego in mid-2026!” The company had previously announced its intention to launch in San Diego next year, along with Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. There’s been plenty of Waymo expansion news in the past couple weeks, as the company announced that it will beentering Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Tampa; isremoving safety driversahead of its commercial launch in Miami; and willstart offering rides that use freewaysin Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. We discussed the growth of Waymo and other robotaxi companies on the latest episode ofthe Equity podcast. My co-host Sean O’Kane noted that as Waymo begins to provide more unfettered access across the Bay Area, people could be spending a lot more time in their robotaxis — so we might see them using the service in new, weird, or evendangerousways. Topics Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City. You can contact or verify outreach from Anthony by [email protected]. StrictlyVC concludes its 2025 series with an exclusive event featuring insights from leading VCs and builders such as Pat Gelsinger, Mina Fahmi, and more. Plus, opportunities to forge meaningful connections. Anduril’s autonomous weapons stumble in tests and combat, WSJ reports This Thanksgiving’s real drama may be Michael Burry versus Nvidia The future will be explained to you in Palo Alto Why ‘hold forever’ investors are snapping up venture capital ‘zombies’ Altman describes OpenAI’s forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone OpenAI learned the hard way that Cameo trademarked the word ‘cameo’ US banks scramble to assess data theft after hackers breach financial tech firm