The US robot taxi company Waymo is launching a loyalty program with cashback and free cancellations. Regular users of the autonomous taxi service can book “Waymo Premier” for a monthly fee of $29.99 and receive various benefits. The company announced this on Thursday.
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“Waymo Premier is a new, exclusive, invitation-only membership program designed specifically for those who count on us most,” the statement said. Thanks to prioritized placement, Premier customers can avoid the virtual queue and receive a ten percent refund (cashback) for every trip – even more in times of high demand. You also have five free cancellations per month.
The company also announced that Waymo Premier will initially be offered to select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. The program will be expanded to other cities in the future, according to the announcement.
Waymo is expanding
Waymo has been expanding for some time. At the beginning of the year, the Alphabet subsidiary raised more than $16 billion in a financing round. The fresh capital will be used to fuel the expansion of its robotaxi service in the USA and entry into global markets. So far, Waymo’s autonomous taxis are operating in half a dozen US cities. The company has announced plans to expand to 20 cities in the U.S. and abroad this year, including Dallas, San Antonio, Orlando, Nashville and London. In January the network was expanded to include Miami. In New York, however, the expansion plans recently suffered a setback.
Last year, Waymo tripled its annual volume to 15 million rides and broke the 20 million ride mark overall. The company now completes more than 400,000 paid rides per week and is targeting more than one million paid robotaxi rides per week in the United States by the end of this year, according to media reports. In the future, Waymo also wants to use minibuses – vans called “Ojai” manufactured by the Geely subsidiary Zeekr in China – as autonomous taxis. A field test recently began in several US cities.
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