Waymo launches public transport rewards programme

Waymo has launched a rewards programme in the San Francisco Bay Area that gives passengers credit for combining autonomous vehicle journeys with public transport.

Riders who link a Visa card to the Waymo app and use it to pay for both a Waymo journey and a public transport trip within two hours will automatically receive US$2.85 in Waymo Cash. The credit is equivalent to a standard San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency fare and can be used towards another Waymo journey.

Adam Lenz, Head of Sustainability and Environment at Waymo, told Cities Today that the programme effectively covers the public transport portion of a combined journey.

“When a rider connects a Waymo trip with a SF Muni bus or train within two hours, they earn Waymo Cash equal to their transit fare, effectively covering the public transit portion of their journey,” he said.

The initial programme is limited to passengers paying with a linked Visa card, potentially excluding people who use other payment methods or discounted fares. Lenz said Waymo designed the scheme around the growing adoption of open-loop, contactless payments. The company cited research indicating that 90 percent of riders expect tap-to-pay functionality and that simpler payment options can encourage greater public transport use.

Waymo has also established a partnership with Caltrain that will provide 40 dedicated staging spaces at selected stations. The arrangement is intended to shorten pick-up times and improve first- and last-mile connections to the regional rail network.

Caltrain and Waymo selected the stations based on available parking spaces, passenger demand and convenience for riders.

“By leasing these staging spaces directly from Caltrain, Waymo is making a strategic investment in modelling first-and-last-mile partnerships,” Lenz said. “This initiative advances our shared goal of growing ridership and helping reduce friction to get to and from public transit stations.”

The two organisations will use ridership figures and aggregated performance indicators to examine how the initiative is working.

“We will collaborate closely with Caltrain to monitor ridership metrics and aggregate performance indicators, such as estimated time of arrival data, to continually assess and optimise connection efficiency,” Lenz said.

Waymo said this is the first public transport incentive programme introduced by an autonomous ride-hailing company. It follows earlier public transport credit pilots in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The company plans to extend both the rewards programme and its partnership model to other cities.

Research conducted by Waymo indicates that more than half of its riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix regularly use public transport, while more than a third report relying less on private cars.

“Broadly speaking, as adoption of shared mobility increases, riders naturally become more multimodal: using public transit more frequently, relying less on personal vehicles, and walking or biking more often,” Lenz said.

Waymo argues that autonomous services can therefore complement public transport by addressing gaps at either end of a journey, rather than replacing trips that could be completed entirely by bus or rail.

Main image: Waymo