{"id":235933,"date":"2026-04-05T10:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/235933\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T10:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:54:24","slug":"waymo-starts-robotaxi-services-at-san-antonio-international-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/235933\/","title":{"rendered":"Waymo starts robotaxi services at San Antonio International Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Waymo\u2019s robotaxi service is going live at its fourth major airport today: San Antonio International. The company said its vehicles will drop off riders curbside at the terminals, and pick up passengers at the airport\u2019s designated rideshare area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the first airport Waymo is servicing in Texas, where the company currently operates in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Houston. Waymo has been offering airport pickups and drops at Phoenix\u2019s Sky Harbor International for a few years now, and has started servicing the <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/01\/29\/waymo-sfo-airport-robotaxis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">San Francisco<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/09\/04\/waymo-cleared-to-offer-robotaxi-rides-at-san-jose-airport\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">San Jose Mineta international<\/a> airports over the past few months. It also serves a handful of regional airports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Waymo launched its San Antonio robotaxi service in February, though it\u2019s still not fully available to the public yet. The company has been operating an invitation-based system that it is scaling on a rolling basis \u2014 an <a href=\"https:\/\/waymo.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/dallas-houston-san-antonio-orlando\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">approach<\/a> it used in Dallas, Houston, and Orlando, too. The company said on Tuesday that has brought \u201c[t]ens of thousands of people\u201d into the San Antonio service and that it plans to make the service available to \u201call public riders soon\u201d in the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This phased approach is one way that Waymo is still being cautious in a year of otherwise rapid expansion. The company has said it wants to launch in around 20 new cities this year, including Tokyo and London. Its robotaxi service is <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/03\/27\/waymo-skyrocketing-ridership-in-one-chart\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">currently live in 10 cities<\/a> and is running more than 500,000 paid rides per week, roughly double the number it was operating at this time last year. Waymo is expected to start offering rides in its newest vehicle, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/01\/07\/waymo-is-rebranding-its-zeekr-robotaxi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the Zeekr-built van called Ojai<\/a>, at some point this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company has shared data that it says proves its robotaxis are already safer than human drivers and reducing serious crashes. Still, Waymo keeps running into new obstacles as it expands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Waymo\u2019s robotaxis have illegally passed school buses that were picking up or dropping off children, a problem that is being investigated by <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/01\/23\/waymo-probed-by-national-transportation-safety-board-over-illegal-school-bus-behavior\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)<\/a>. It has issued software updates to address this problem, but is still working with local officials in Austin, where the most school bus incidents have been documented, to figure out how to make its robotaxis behave around the buses, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/a-school-district-tried-to-help-train-waymos-to-stop-for-school-buses-it-didnt-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">according to Wired<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The NTSB and NHTSA are also investigating the company after one of its robotaxis <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/01\/29\/waymo-robotaxi-hits-a-child-near-an-elementary-school-in-santa-monica\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">crashed into a child at a low speed in Santa Monica<\/a>. The child reportedly sustained minor injuries, and Waymo said its robotaxi slowed from 17 miles per hour to six miles per hour before it made impact.<\/p>\n<p>Techcrunch event<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re also learning more about everything that goes into Waymo\u2019s on-the-ground operations as it expands. The company has dozens of so-called \u201cremote assistance\u201d staff located in the U.S. and the Philippines who help Waymo\u2019s robotaxis navigate tricky or unexpected scenarios. Waymo also relies on a team of \u201croadside assistance\u201d workers \u2014 as well as first responders \u2014 in the rare case that a vehicle gets truly stuck, as <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/03\/25\/waymo-robotaxi-roadside-assistance-emergency-first-responders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TechCrunch recently detailed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This story has been updated with information about Waymo serving regional airports. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waymo\u2019s robotaxi service is going live at its fourth major airport today: San Antonio International. The company said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10021,42066,27549,82,84,83,10020],"class_list":{"0":"post-235933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-autonomous-vehicles","9":"tag-avs","10":"tag-robotaxi","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","13":"tag-san-antonio-news","14":"tag-waymo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}