Waymo Jaguar I-Pace in San Francisco 2023 Credit: Dllu Waymo will issue $2.85 in credit to San Francisco Bay Area riders who take a robotaxi and a public transport journey within two hours of each other, provided they pay with a Visa card. In Hamburg the same connection is arranged by the transit operator itself, which leads the autonomous shuttle project and lists the vehicles in its own app. Waymo will give riders $2.85 in credit when they pair a robotaxi trip with a public transport journey within two hours, the company said. The programme starts in the San Francisco Bay Area, with employees first and the public in the coming weeks.
The reward requires a Visa card. The card is a condition. Riders link a Visa card in the Waymo app, and the scheme covers the 27 Bay Area agencies that accept contactless tap to pay. Mastercard runs a separate transit benefit programme of its own, Mashable noted.
Waymo says more than half its riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix already use public transport. Then it leased the station. Waymo will take 40 dedicated parking spaces at Caltrain stations to stage vehicles for arriving passengers, and says it hopes to repeat the arrangement with other agencies. California’s transport secretary and the mayor of San Jose both welcomed the programme.
The $2.85 is the price of a San Francisco bus fare. Hamburg arranged this the other way round. Hamburger Hochbahn, the city’s transit operator, leads the project putting autonomous ID Buzz vans on Hamburg streets, with Volkswagen’s MOIA running them. The federal transport ministry has put EUR 26M behind it over three years.
The fleet is up to 20 vehicles across about 37 square kilometres. The application is the difference. Those shuttles are bookable through hvv switch, the transit authority’s own app, as well as through MOIA’s. Nobody is paid a credit for making the connection, because the connection is the product.
The service area holds roughly 320,000 people. Waymo reaches Germany next year. It began mapping Munich in August, with commercial service targeted for late 2027 under the framework Germany passed in 2021. Bavarian officials promised to remove regulatory barriers.
Waymo has announced no public transport arrangement there. London went differently again. Uber and Wayve launched London’s first robotaxi service with a safety driver in every car, booked through Uber rather than through Transport for London. Whoever owns the app owns the passenger, and in Hamburg that is the transit operator.
Waymo has not said which arrangement it will bring to Munich.
