Introducing transit rewards

Today, Waymo is worked up to announce our transit rewards program, which we’ll initially provide within the San Francisco Bay Area, with future cities to observe. This first-of-its-kind initiative rewards riders with Waymo Cash once they join their Waymo rides with public transit and use their Visa card. We’ll begin with worker entry earlier than step by step rolling out to the general public within the coming weeks.

Public transit networks and shared autonomous autos are a part of a complementary mobility ecosystem. As transit companies modernize their fee techniques to simply accept tap-to-pay debit and bank cards, multimodal journeys have gotten extra handy than ever. 

“Governor Newsom has challenged all of us to construct a transportation system that meets Californians the place they’re, and meaning making the journey to the station as easy because the prepare experience itself,” stated California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin. “CalSTA welcomes improvements that reward folks for selecting transit and make a multimodal journey really feel like one seamless journey.”

Recent surveys present that over 50% of Waymo riders in our most mature service areas (San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix) use public transit, so we’re proud to take a position instantly on this connectivity to make on a regular basis commutes simpler and extra reasonably priced. The transit rewards program works alongside the regional switch low cost applications and tap-to-pay mannequin launched in the San Francisco Bay Area final December. The program applies to all 27 San Francisco Bay Area transit companies that settle for contactless Visa tap-to-pay.

“San José has at all times believed innovation ought to make on a regular basis life work higher,” stated San José Mayor Matt Mahan. “This partnership does precisely that by utilizing new know-how to strengthen public transit, not change it, making regional journey extra seamless and giving folks extra methods to get the place they should go.”

To take part, riders will hyperlink their Visa card within the Waymo app. When riders within the SF Bay Area use their Visa card to take a Waymo journey and public transit inside 2 hours of one another, we’ll robotically difficulty $2.85 in Waymo Cash, which is the price of a bus fare in San Francisco. 

Alongside the launch of our transit rewards program, we’re additionally saying a partnership with Caltrain, which accepts tap-to-pay. Waymo will lease 40 devoted Caltrain station parking areas to higher serve transit riders with staged autos. This is a mannequin we hope to duplicate with extra transit companies, finally enabling extra seamless connections between Waymo’s service and public transit.

This launch is the subsequent step towards making our imaginative and prescient of shared mobility a actuality. By taking the learnings from our transit credit score pilot applications in San Francisco and Los Angeles, including Waymo’s service to the LA Metro Mobility Wallet program, and kicking off a strategic microtransit partnership with Via in Chandler, AZ, we’ve been steadily studying what it takes to supply a profitable transit integration product and are happy to formally launch transit rewards.

“Shared mobility is a group effort, and our autonomous ride-hailing service helps broaden clear transportation choices for everybody,” stated Adam Lenz, Head of Sustainability & Environment at Waymo. “We’re thrilled to accomplice with native transit companies to fill multimodal gaps and make each day commutes simpler by means of our new transit rewards program.”

Our purpose is to broaden this transit rewards program and transit company partnerships to extra cities over time, finally making shared, all-electric transportation extra accessible and reasonably priced for everybody.