Waymo announced Wednesday that its cars are officially being deployed on Bay Area freeways, and while not all riders will have access to the service right away, you can theoretically now take a Waymo from downtown San Francisco to downtown San Jose.

Yes, everyone, the time has come when you will begin seeing driverless cars navigating local freeways, at freeway speeds, and hopefully this experiment does not go quickly south. Waymo announced that it has begun expanding its service area to include stretches of highways 101 and 280 on the Peninsula, as well as San Jose and Mineta San Jose International Airport.

“This is a significant milestone," says Mykel Kochenderfer, director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory and co-director of the Stanford Center for AI Safety, speaking to NBC Bay Area.  "We've been waiting for this moment for actually a couple of decades now."

Kochenderfer suggests to NBC that this is a "make-or-break moment" for both Waymo and the autonomous vehicle industry as a whole, adding that at freeway speeds, "The consequences of error can be more significant."

Still, freeway driving is thought to be largely more predictable than city driving, and Waymo engineers say they have been putting the robocars through various freeway tests in a closed environment, before letting them out on real freeways. As the Chronicle reports today, those tests included "simulation of dangerous scenarios — like an overturned car or a lane-splitting motorcyclist."

A Chronicle reporter went out for a spin in a freeway-enabled Waymo on Monday, and says that the driverless car "handled acceleration and lane changes with all the nimbleness of an experienced driver," and that other drivers seemed unfazed by the sight of a Waymo in their midst.

The Bay Area expansion includes San Bruno, San Mateo, San Carlos, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Jose — and while testing has begun with human drivers at the wheel at SFO, we don't yet know when users will be able to order rides from San Francisco or any of these other cities to SFO. You can, however, go from San Francisco to San Jose's airport now, once you are given access to the expanded service parameters.

Initial users being selected to enjoy Waymo freeway service on the Peninsula are being chosen from a set of users who have already opted in to test other services on the Waymo One app. In the coming weeks, more access will be granted, and all you have to do is open the app and click "I'm interested" under the "Bay Area expansion" announcement to be included. (See below.)

The expansion of service to freeways is occurring simultaneously in Los Angeles and Phoenix, where Waymo has already been operating, with a promise to bring the service to Austin and Atlanta as well.

"The open road symbolizes freedom and unlimited possibility – highlighted especially by the ease and speed by which freeways allow us to get where we’re going," the company says in a blog post. "Waymo is now bringing that experience into the autonomous driving age, as we begin welcoming riders to use Waymo on freeways across the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles."

Today's announcement comes not long after Waymo found itself at the center of a local uproar over the tragic death of a bodega cat on 16th Street in the Mission District, KitKat. The cat was reportedly on or next to the sidewalk when it was struck by a Waymo vehicle that apparently did not see it there, and the incident was witnessed by multiple bystanders.

Waymo has yet to have to deal with a serious accident involving a human victim, as rival company Cruise did two years ago, leading directly to that company's demise.

But wait until, potentially, a Waymo gets involved in some sort of multicar pileup situation on a freeway.

Previously: Waymo Gets Its First Baby-Step Approval to Give Rides to SFO, Cars Will Have Human Drivers at First