It's become common practice for busy San Francisco parents to summon Waymos for their kids, whatever the expense, to avoid having to chauffeur them everywhere, and because they're safer than Ubers or Lyfts.
If you're the parent of a semi-independent kid in San Francisco these days, Waymo has become a handy tool for pickups and dropoffs when you don't have the time, or when you've had a few drinks on a Friday night. And it removes the weirdness of calling a regular cab or Uber, with a driver who could present a potential threat to that child, or the hazards of public transportation.
"If my daughter calls because she is out on Ocean Beach, which is where kids gather on the weekends, and it’s 10 pm, and I’ve had a martini, then I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, take the 38 [bus],’” says one mother, Laura Mancuso, speaking to the Chronicle. "Apart from the expense, which is annoying, I have no issues [calling a Waymo]."
These teens tend to have the Waymo app on their phones, with the app linked to their parents' account.
While it makes perfect sense for most parents, it's still a practice that hasn't been approved at the state level, and Waymo's terms of service don't allow unaccompanied minors to use the autonomous service. The parents doing this open themselves up to potential suspension from Waymo, but it seems the company, so far, is turning something of a blind eye — and giving the benefit of the doubt when a young-looking person appears on a vehicle's interior cameras getting into a Waymo by themselves.
The thing is, Waymo already allows for teen accounts in Phoenix, the only other market outside California where the company is operating via the Waymo One app — Waymo is also operating in Austin and Atlanta right now, but only as an AV option within the Uber app, and the cars can't be specifically hailed.
"Waymo offers a unique solution for families to keep their teens safe, help combat FOMO, and provide much-needed independence for those navigating adolescence – welcome to Waymo teen accounts!" the company writes in a July 2025 blog post.
These teen accounts, available to kids aged 14 to 17, have to be linked to the account of an adult parent or guardian, but under Arizona law the teens are able to ride in the AVs on their own.
The blog post points to one Phoenix teen, Mikaylee, who has epilepsy and therefore isn't permitted to get a driver's license of her own. A Waymo teen account has allowed her to have some newfound freedom, without depending on her parents all the time for a ride.
"It’s convenient because it allows me to ride to the places I want," Mikaylee says. "Before, if I didn't have a ride, I'd have to miss it.”
The California Public Utilities Commission may allow for something similar here and in Los Angeles, where Waymo has also been on the road since late 2024. But that decision has yet to come down.
As the Chronicle reports, there are local forces fighting against such a change in SF. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority submitted comments in October to the CPUC saying that, "given the nascent state" of the autonomous vehicle industry, prohibitions on teen use should continue for now.
And the CPUC is, per the Chronicle, "midway through a process to make new rules and policies for autonomous vehicles," and a policy around teens' use of the vehicles is one of the items still being discussed.
It would only take one negative incident involving a minor and a Waymo to sour any discussion of a rule change.
A company spokesperson says, "We have received significant interest from families to allow teenagers to ride independently, and we’re working to make this available where applicable laws allow."
Related: Waymos Were Looking for Human Remote 'Confirmations' at Intersections During Blackout, Company Says
Top image: Photo via Waymo
