Waymo has been granted a permit to start testing its autonomous vehicles at San Francisco International Airport, ahead of the launch of a commercial service.
The San Francisco mayor’s office announced Tuesday that the airport, known as SFO, and Waymo have signed a “Testing and Operations Pilot Permit” after years of back-and-forth negotiations. The deal with SFO comes just two weeks after Waymo was cleared to start testing at nearby San Jose Mineta International airport .
SFO is not the first airport that Waymo will serve; the company has been operating at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport since 2023. But SFO has been a target for Waymo for just as long, if not longer, as it’s the biggest airport serving the company’s home base of Silicon Valley.
Airport authorities initially rebuffed Wa