Driverless car testing coming to Folsom, Rancho Cordova

Coming to a Folsom neighborhood near you in the near future: Expect to see an occasional Waymo, otherwise known as a driverless car, alongside you on local streets. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has approved Waymo models to conduct driverless testing and deployment operations in several new locations in California, including Folsom and Rancho Cordova. Before this latest expansion, Waymos were only tested in Northern California, specifically in the south Bay Area and San Jose vicinity. The DMV website states 2021 or 2024 Jaguar I-Pace models or 2022 or 2025 Zeekr RT models of Waymo cars are approved to be used for driverless testing in the new areas. Waymo testing will also expand to most of Southern California. There is no definitive date for when the Waymos will come to town; however, the driverless cars are already a daily common sight in the Bay Area. "We appreciate the DMV's approval of our expanded fully autonomous operations," a Waymo spokesperson said in a statement. "Our next stop in the Golden State will be San Diego, where we'll welcome our first riders in mid-2026." The company known as Alphabet, which is Google's parent company, owns Waymo. While the cars are largely engaging in test drives in the Bay Area, they also have offered driverless robotaxi service to the public in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.