Get ready Sacramento County — you may be seeing more self driving cars on area streets: Waymo has been approved to test driverless vehicles in additional California communities, including key cities across the Sacramento region.
According to recent approvals from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Waymo is now authorized to conduct fully driverless testing and deployment with its vehicles in a wide range of California cities beyond its existing service zones. In the Sacramento region, that authorization includes Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Elk Grove, along with several nearby communities in Solano and Yolo counties. The approvals clear the company to operate its 2021 and 2024 Jaguar I-Pace models and 2022 and 2025 Zeekr RT vehicles without a human driver on board.
Waymo’s expansion into the Sacramento region represents a significant step for a company that began as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009. The technology traces its origins to the Stanford Racing Team, which competed in the groundbreaking DARPA Grand Challenges in 2005 and 2007. After years of testing, Google revealed the project to the public in 2010 and later delivered what it described as the world’s first fully driverless ride on public roads in 2015 — an early milestone that paved the way for today’s robotaxi fleets.
Since rebranding as Waymo in 2016 and becoming an independent company under Alphabet, the company has expanded rapidly. It now operates commercial driverless ride services in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin, and provides rides to select waitlisted passengers in Silicon Valley. As of April 2025, the company reports offering more than 250,000 paid rides per week, totaling more than a million autonomous miles driven each month.
Waymo is led by co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov and has raised more than $11 billion in outside funding to support the development and scaling of its autonomous technology. Over the years, Waymo has established major partnerships with automakers including Jaguar Land Rover, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz Group and Volvo Cars to integrate its systems into multiple electric vehicle platforms. More recently, the company has begun testing routes that include freeway travel for select riders, further expanding the capabilities of its autonomous fleet.
For residents in Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Elk Grove, the DMV approval means that driverless Waymo vehicles may begin appearing locally once the company begins its phased rollout. However, there is still no timeline for when testing will start or when public ride service might eventually follow. The authorization establishes the legal framework, but deployment schedules remain up to the company.
Waymo has said it plans to welcome riders in San Diego beginning in mid-2026, signaling a continued push to grow throughout California. With the Sacramento region now part of its approved operational map, the company is positioned to make the capital area one of its next major expansion zones.
While residents may not see the vehicles immediately, the groundwork is now in place. Once testing begins, portions of Sacramento County — including Folsom and other suburban hubs — may gradually join the growing list of American communities where fully autonomous vehicles operate as part of everyday traffic.
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