Weather shapes our lives, from dictating what we wear, to how we commute, to whether school is in. At Waymo, we've invested in understanding weather and its impact on our technology since our earliest days as Google's Self-Driving Car Project. We've learned a lot along the way that has enabled us to drive autonomously in various conditions, provide better service to our riders and partners, and advance our technology to serve more cities in the future.

Phoenix holds a special place in our hearts at Waymo, as it’s where we were the first company to launch a public ride-hail service with no human behind the wheel over two years ago. That’s why we’re excited to take the next step by initiating the industry’s first-ever paid trips to and from an airport at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, starting today.

Los Angeles will be Waymo’s next ride-hailing city, joining Phoenix and San Francisco as we expand to more locations. We’ve gotten to know many LA neighborhoods, including Downtown and Miracle Mile, Koreatown, Santa Monica, Westwood and West Hollywood, and we’ll begin driving autonomously in several central districts over the coming months as we prepare to serve Angelenos.

Since our founding, Waymo has partnered with and listened to advocates for people with disabilities. As we continually improve our technology, we will strive to put individual passengers – with their diverse needs and experiences – at the center of our product to co-create the Waymo One ride-hailing service together.

Today, we’re launching the Waymo Accessibility Network to formalize and scale our longstanding collaboration with disability advocates. This will expand inclusion of their crucial voices and valuable perspectives as we work together to shape the future of transportation.

Autonomous driving technology has the potential to dramatically improve road safety and save millions of lives now lost to traffic crashes. Yet, there are still no universally accepted approaches for evaluating the safety of autonomous driving systems. “How safe is safe enough?” and “How do autonomously driven vehicles perform compared to a human driver?” are questions frequently asked across the industry. Following the publication of the Waymo safety framework, real-world performance data, and the simulated reconstruction of fatal crashes, we are taking another important step in answering these complex questions. In our continuous effort to share more information about our safety approaches and metrics, we are releasing two new scientific papers that present methods to compare autonomous vehicle performance to human driving—an important component of determining the readiness of autonomous driving systems.

I’m so pleased to share that Elisa de Martel, a finance executive with 20+years of experience leading private and public companies, is joining Waymo as our Chief Financial Officer. Elisa brings powerful value to Waymo with her depth of financial leadership experience spanning both tech and traditional automotive industries. Elisa’s global, strategic perspective positions us well as we deploy and commercialize the Waymo Driver across multiple geographies and vehicle platforms.