Robotaxi in San Francisco and the Bay Area: who goes where, from Daly City to San Jose.

Three robotaxi companies carry riders in the Bay Area and a fourth is on the way, which makes “can I get one here” a harder question than it sounds. The answer depends on which company, which city, and whether you count a car with a human behind the wheel. A Waymo can take you from the Mission to Mountain View with an empty driver’s seat. A Tesla can take you from Oakland to San Jose, but someone is sitting there. A Zoox can take you across SoMa for free, if you have been let in.

This guide is for riders: operator by operator, city by city, with the airports, freeways and fares. The last two sections are for anyone who wants to own one of these cars.

Is there a robotaxi in San Francisco?

Yes. Three companies carry members of the public in San Francisco today, and only one of them charges for a ride with nobody driving.

• Waymo. Open to anyone in San Francisco since June 25, 2024 (Waymo, Jun 25, 2024). The DMV’s deployment list has three names on it: Mercedes-Benz, Nuro and Waymo (California DMV, list as of Oct 22, 2026).
• Tesla. Tesla launched what it calls a ride-hailing service in the Bay Area at the end of July 2025, with a human driver in every car (Electrek, Jul 31, 2025). The Robotaxi app has been open to California passengers since September 2025 (The Oaklandside, Sep 8, 2026).
• Zoox. Amazon’s robotaxi, the boxy one with no steering wheel, opened to people off its waitlist on November 18, 2025, free, through a program it calls Zoox Explorers (TechCrunch, Nov 18, 2025). It still needs another California permit before it can charge (TechCrunch, Sep 17, 2026).
• Uber, Nuro and Lucid (not yet). Uber’s CEO told investors in May that public rides in the Lucid Gravity would begin in the Bay Area “later this year,” and Nuro holds a CPUC permit, granted May 8, to carry passengers with a safety driver (Smart Cities Dive, Jul 16, 2026). We found no report of public rides as of today.

Is Tesla’s robotaxi live in the Bay Area, and what “with safety drivers” means

Live, yes. Driverless, no. The Bay Area is the largest map in Tesla’s network and the only Tesla market where every ride has a person in the driver’s seat, and that is set by its permits.

• What Tesla itself says. Its second-quarter update lists the “SF Bay Area” with the status “Safety Driver,” and a footnote says Bay Area operations use FSD (Supervised) under California TCP permit TCP0046782-A (Tesla Q2 2026 Update, Jul 22, 2026). Its third-quarter update, filed October 21, does not mention the Bay Area at all (Tesla Q3 2026 Update, Oct 21, 2026).
• What a TCP permit is. A charter-party carrier permit is what a limousine company holds: a fleet with drivers. The CPUC granted Tesla one in March 2025, and a CPUC spokesperson said in July that Tesla “has not requested nor been granted any changes” to it since (San Francisco Chronicle, Jul 22, 2026).
• What the DMV says. As of October 21, 2026, Tesla Robotaxi LLC is on the DMV’s list of companies allowed to test with a safety driver. It is not on the driverless testing list or the deployment list, both updated October 22 (California DMV, checked Oct 27, 2026).
• Why it is missing from Tesla’s safety numbers. Tesla’s first Robotaxi Safety Report, published October 21, 2026, covers miles driven with no safety monitor in six Texas and Florida cities. The Bay Area is left out, because its rides are not driverless (Not a Tesla App, Oct 21, 2026). We break the report down in our safety report explainer.
• How big the map is. Not a Tesla App measured the Bay Area zone at about 1,098 square miles, from Richmond, Berkeley and Oakland through Fremont and Milpitas into San Jose, and up the Peninsula through Palo Alto, San Mateo and Daly City to San Francisco (Not a Tesla App, Sep 29, 2026). Tesla does not publish a figure.

For a rider, that means a Model Y arrives with a Tesla driver behind the wheel while supervised software does the steering. It is closer to a premium ride-share than to the empty-seat rides in Austin; the difference is in what unsupervised FSD means.

Where does each robotaxi go in the Bay Area?

Waymo’s map grew in steps: Daly City in August 2024 (Electrek, Aug 6, 2024); Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and parts of Sunnyvale in March 2025; Brisbane, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame and Menlo Park in June 2025 (Mountain View Voice, Nov 13, 2025; TechCrunch, Jun 17, 2025). On November 12, 2025 it became one zone of more than 260 square miles from San Francisco to San Jose (SF Standard, Nov 12, 2025), and in May 2026 Waymo said it was adding about 60 more in the South Bay, for over 330 (NBC Bay Area, May 14, 2026). Today Waymo said it is extending service into more of the southern Bay Area over the coming week, including a new connection at the Berryessa BART station (Waymo, Oct 27, 2026).

That is the update Electrek reported as nearly 250 square miles across five cities. The Bay Area is one of them, with Los Angeles, San Diego, Nashville and Orlando; Waymo did not say how much of the 250 is here (Electrek, Oct 27, 2026).

Tesla’s map is the 1,098-square-mile zone above. Zoox’s map launched in SoMa, the Mission and the Design District (TechCrunch, Nov 18, 2025). In March Zoox said it was quadrupling that to reach Chinatown, North Beach, Pacific Heights, the Embarcadero and the Marina, employees first and Explorers after (San Francisco Chronicle, Mar 24, 2026). We found no report confirming when Explorers got the larger area.

None of the three publishes a downloadable boundary; each shows its live map in its app. Use the table to know which app to open, not as the last word on an address.

Bay Area robotaxi map, city by city

Is there a robotaxi in San Jose?

Yes, from two companies. Waymo’s first San Jose map in November 2025 was the city center, with pickups at Santana Row, Westfield Valley Fair and the Newhall, College Park and Cory neighborhoods (KQED, Nov 2025). It added Willow Glen and Vista Park in May. This week’s update reaches the Berryessa BART station in north San Jose, the end of the line from Fremont and Milpitas, so a rider coming down on BART can finish the trip in a Waymo. We found no 2026 report that settles whether every downtown address is inside; the app will tell you. Tesla covers San Jose too, with a driver.

Is there a robotaxi in Oakland, Berkeley or Emeryville?

With Tesla, yes, in Oakland and Berkeley, and with a driver. Waymo, not yet. The CPUC approved Waymo’s fared driverless service in the East Bay effective August 14, 2026, about a year after the DMV cleared it to drive in Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward and Alameda. Waymo told the Mercury News the rollout would be “gradual” and gave no date (The Oaklandside, Sep 8, 2026), and today’s update does not mention the East Bay. Emeryville is a gap in every report we read: neither company names it, though it sits between Oakland and Berkeley, which Tesla serves. Drop a pin in the Robotaxi app.

What about the Peninsula and Silicon Valley?

This is Waymo’s strongest ground, and its home: the company is based in Mountain View. Daly City through Palo Alto and Mountain View to San Jose is one continuous zone, so a South San Francisco to Menlo Park commute works end to end. Santa Clara is the one city in the middle that no report names for either company.

How much does a robotaxi cost in San Francisco?

No company publishes a Bay Area rate card. Waymo’s help page says a fare is built from a minimum price, the distance and the time of the trip, and can move with demand, tolls and surcharges; the only city it gives a formula for is Las Vegas (Waymo Help, checked Oct 27, 2026). The app shows the price before you book.

The best measured data we found is from Obi, a ride-price comparison app, covering about 94,000 rides in San Francisco between November 27, 2025 and January 1, 2026. Waymo averaged $19.69, Uber $17.47 and Lyft $15.47 (TechCrunch, Jan 27, 2026). Tesla averaged $8.17, but its average wait was 15.32 minutes against Waymo’s 5.74 (Obi, Jan 27, 2026). That is a snapshot from last winter: in September The Oaklandside found Tesla’s rides cost “about the same as an Uber or Lyft” (Sep 8, 2026), so the gap may have closed. Zoox is free, if you can get in.

How do you ride each one?

• Waymo: download the Waymo app. San Francisco has been open to everyone since 2024, and the Bay Area is listed as one service area (Waymo Help, checked Oct 27, 2026). Unlike Austin and Atlanta, Bay Area Waymos are booked in Waymo’s own app, not Uber.
• Tesla: download the separate Tesla Robotaxi app. Expect a Model Y with a driver. The steps are the same ones we walked through in how to ride a Cybercab in Austin, minus the Cybercab.
• Zoox: download the Zoox app and join the waitlist. Zoox said in November 2025 that its goal was to remove the waitlist in 2026 (TechCrunch, Nov 18, 2025); we found no report that it has.

A trip from Oakland to San Francisco is a Tesla trip, because Waymo does not serve the East Bay yet. A trip from the Mission to Palo Alto with nobody driving is a Waymo trip. Inside SoMa, try all three.

Can a robotaxi take you to SFO, SJC or OAK?

SJC: yes, the easiest of the three. Waymo has served San Jose Mineta since November 12, 2025, its first California airport (Waymo Help announcements; SF Standard, Nov 12, 2025). Pickups at Terminal A are at Stop 9; at Terminal B they are outside the Rental Car Center; drop-offs are curbside at Departures for both (Waymo Help, checked Oct 27, 2026). Tesla added SJC on October 27, 2025 (Drive Tesla, Oct 27, 2025).

SFO: yes, with conditions. Waymo began SFO trips on January 29, 2026 for select riders (Electrek, Jan 29, 2026). There is no terminal pickup: Waymo uses the Rental Car Center, about 15 minutes away on the AirTrain, and the Grand Hyatt at SFO, about 10, for “a limited number of riders” (Waymo Help, checked Oct 27, 2026). In July the Chronicle reported Waymo had all but cut off its own SFO access while freeway rides were paused, because the airport is hard to reach on surface streets. Freeways were back by July 30 (below) and the airport page still lists SFO, but we found no report that it is open to all riders. Tesla announced SFO on July 21, 2026; SFO says Tesla runs there on a limousine permit, with a human driver, and spokesperson Doug Yakel said Tesla “has not been issued for any autonomous operations at SFO” (San Francisco Chronicle, Jul 22, 2026).

OAK: no. Waymo does not serve the East Bay, and its airport list does not include Oakland. Not a Tesla App’s September description of Tesla’s zone names SFO and SJC, not OAK. In 2025 Oakland airport said Tesla had made early contact but filed no formal application (Drive Tesla, Oct 27, 2025), and we found nothing newer.

What makes the Bay Area hard for a robotaxi

Freeways. Waymo started public freeway trips on November 12, 2025, on the 101, the 280 and others, only when a freeway is “meaningfully faster” (KQED, Nov 2025; SF Standard, Nov 12, 2025). On May 21, 2026 it pulled freeway rides in four metros, the Bay Area among them, to fix how its cars handled construction zones (TechCrunch, May 21, 2026). By July 30 its help page said freeway routes were “available again in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area” (Waymo Help, archived Jul 30, 2026). The live page today says freeway access “is currently limited” and still rolling out to more riders (Waymo Help, checked Oct 27, 2026). It matters here: TechCrunch noted freeways had sharply cut Peninsula trips that used to take anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour (May 21, 2026). Without freeway access, expect the slow way.

The bridges. Waymo’s zone sits on the west and south sides of the Bay, so until the East Bay or Marin opens, a Waymo trip has no reason to cross the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate, and we found no report of one doing so. Tesla’s map spans both sides, with a driver.

The city itself. When a PG&E substation fire knocked out power to about 130,000 customers on December 20, 2025, Waymo cars stalled at dark signals, and Waymo paused San Francisco service until the next day. Waymo said its cars treat a dead signal as a four-way stop, but the scale of the outage left some “stationary longer than usual” (CNBC, Dec 21, 2025).

Two regulators. In California the DMV decides who may drive without a human and the CPUC decides who may charge passengers. A company needs both to run Waymo-style service, which is why Zoox can give rides but not sell them, and why Tesla’s cars keep a driver. The longer version is on our California page.

Where do Bay Area robotaxis live between rides?

On each company’s own lots; no robotaxi carrying Bay Area riders today is privately owned. The only addresses we found reported are Tesla’s: two downtown Oakland garages, at 1900 Broadway and 1950 Franklin Street, where a Business Journal story found Tesla parking and servicing its cars. Golden Cybercabs were also seen around Lake Merritt and Broadway in the weeks before September 8, though Tesla has announced no Cybercab rides here (The Oaklandside, Sep 8, 2026). Waymo and Zoox have not published where their Bay Area fleets sleep, and Zoox builds its vehicles at a factory in the East Bay (San Francisco Chronicle, Mar 24, 2026).

None of those lots takes in a car somebody else owns. That gap is what DockDuty is built for: a place where an individually owned robotaxi parks, charges, gets cleaned and inspected, and goes back out. The primer is what a robotaxi depot does. A Bay Area site would need DC fast charging, because the Cybercab charges DC-only through the NACS port and has no onboard AC charger.

What it means for would-be owners

The Bay Area has the riders and the operators. It does not yet have a legal path for the car Tesla says individuals may one day own. A Cybercab has no steering wheel, so the safety-driver setup Tesla uses for its Model Ys here does not fit it, and Tesla holds no DMV or CPUC driverless approval in California. Until that changes, a Cybercab could not earn on Tesla’s Bay Area network, whatever happens in Texas.

Tesla has published no owner-program terms and no Cybercab order page. On its October 21 call it said it is trying to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of 2026, starting small, without saying whether that means individuals (our notes from the call). Nobody has fleet-scale Cybercab earnings history yet, including us, so any Bay Area income figure is a projection. Our earnings calculator lets you set your own assumptions.

Where DockDuty stands: Orlando is our lead market, with its depot targeted for Q4 2026. We are planning locations in several more metros at the same time, including depots in Miami and Tampa Bay. The Bay Area’s status is demand open. Owners can elect this market at checkout and the count is published; nothing else is committed. A California depot would also wait on Tesla driverless permits here. The founding book (50 stalls, network-wide) sold out on September 5, 2026, and capacity that opens next sells at Priority rates. You can reserve a stall and elect Bay Area, CA as your preferred market in the flow; the $450 deposit is fully refundable until your Cybercab is onboarded and credited in full against the $1,000 onboarding fee.

Robotaxi San Francisco FAQ

Is there a robotaxi in San Francisco?
Yes. Waymo has been open to anyone in San Francisco since June 25, 2024 and runs with nobody in the driver’s seat. Tesla runs a ride-hailing service with a human safety driver in every car, and Zoox gives free driverless rides in part of the city to people off its waitlist.

Does Waymo go to San Jose?
Yes. Waymo’s zone runs from San Francisco down the Peninsula to San Jose and Campbell, and San Jose Mineta airport has had Waymo pickups since November 12, 2025. An update announced October 27, 2026 adds more of the South Bay, including the Berryessa BART station, over the following week.

Is Tesla’s robotaxi driverless in the Bay Area?
No. Tesla lists the Bay Area as “Safety Driver” and runs it on a charter-party carrier permit, the kind a limousine company holds. As of October 21, 2026, the California DMV lists Tesla Robotaxi LLC only for testing with a safety driver.

Can a robotaxi take me to SFO or SJC?
SJC, yes: Waymo picks up at Terminal A Stop 9 and outside the Terminal B Rental Car Center, and Tesla serves it with a driver. SFO, partly: Waymo uses the Rental Car Center and the Grand Hyatt for a limited number of riders, and Tesla serves it under a limousine permit with a human driver. We found no robotaxi serving Oakland airport.

Is there a robotaxi in Oakland, Berkeley or Emeryville?
Tesla serves Oakland and Berkeley with a safety driver. Waymo has state approval for the East Bay, effective August 14, 2026, but has not launched there or given a date. No report names Emeryville for either company.

How much does a robotaxi cost in San Francisco?
No company publishes a Bay Area rate card. In an Obi sample of San Francisco rides from late 2025, Waymo averaged $19.69 and Tesla $8.17, against $17.47 for Uber and $15.47 for Lyft. Zoox rides are free. The app quotes your fare before you book.

Can I buy a Cybercab in California?
Not today. Tesla has no Cybercab order page and has published no owner terms; it has said only that it is trying to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of 2026. A Cybercab also could not carry paying riders in California until Tesla holds driverless permits here.

Does DockDuty have a depot in the Bay Area?
No. No DockDuty depot is operating anywhere yet. Orlando is our lead market, with its depot targeted for Q4 2026. The Bay Area is open for reservations so we can see demand, and nothing else is committed.