DatabaseFleetDeadhead geography

Where the empty miles come from

A robotaxi drives empty between dropping one rider and reaching the next. California carriers file, per census tract, how many trips started and ended there — so the imbalance between the two maps where that empty repositioning is generated. It is the geography behind the deadhead ratio, a level of detail no operator publishes.

SF Bay AreaLos Angeles
Tracts mapped · SF Bay Area
376
Census tracts with a filed trip origin or destination
Trips originating here
30,357
Filed trip starts across the mapped tracts
Strongest net destination
+101
tract 06075030800 · 387 in, 286 out
Strongest net origin
-97
tract 06075020601 · 534 out, 437 in

SF Bay Area — trip origins against destinations

Each tract is shaded by the net between trips that ended there and trips that started there. Select a tract for both counts. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan.

Net origin — trips departNet destination — trips arrive

Trip balance by census tract in SF Bay Area

376 tracts carry a filed trip origin or destination. 30,357 trips originate across them. The 25 strongest at each end are listed here; a positive net means more trips arrive than depart.

Tracts that take in more trips than they send out

  • Census tract 06075030800: 387 arriving, 286 departing, net +101.
  • Census tract 06075025900: 102 arriving, 35 departing, net +67.
  • Census tract 06075030700: 167 arriving, 101 departing, net +66.
  • Census tract 06075030101: 245 arriving, 180 departing, net +65.
  • Census tract 06075017000: 269 arriving, 205 departing, net +64.
  • Census tract 06075025403: 153 arriving, 95 departing, net +58.
  • Census tract 06075032601: 337 arriving, 282 departing, net +55.
  • Census tract 06075060100: 485 arriving, 431 departing, net +54.
  • Census tract 06075020401: 180 arriving, 126 departing, net +54.
  • Census tract 06075042601: 206 arriving, 158 departing, net +48.
  • Census tract 06075013002: 231 arriving, 184 departing, net +47.
  • Census tract 06075022704: 161 arriving, 115 departing, net +46.
  • Census tract 06075013500: 225 arriving, 180 departing, net +45.
  • Census tract 06075030102: 200 arriving, 156 departing, net +44.
  • Census tract 06075031000: 81 arriving, 38 departing, net +43.
  • Census tract 06075047902: 115 arriving, 72 departing, net +43.
  • Census tract 06075025100: 149 arriving, 106 departing, net +43.
  • Census tract 06075017101: 192 arriving, 153 departing, net +39.
  • Census tract 06075020900: 193 arriving, 161 departing, net +32.
  • Census tract 06075025300: 252 arriving, 222 departing, net +30.
  • Census tract 06075015900: 224 arriving, 195 departing, net +29.
  • Census tract 06075013300: 202 arriving, 173 departing, net +29.
  • Census tract 06075047904: 104 arriving, 75 departing, net +29.
  • Census tract 06075013101: 91 arriving, 65 departing, net +26.
  • Census tract 06075013200: 119 arriving, 93 departing, net +26.

Tracts that send out more trips than they take in

  • Census tract 06075020601: 534 departing, 437 arriving, net -97.
  • Census tract 06075016400: 502 departing, 419 arriving, net -83.
  • Census tract 06075980900: 273 departing, 195 arriving, net -78.
  • Census tract 06075040200: 298 departing, 223 arriving, net -75.
  • Census tract 06075030202: 473 departing, 406 arriving, net -67.
  • Census tract 06075045202: 132 departing, 68 arriving, net -64.
  • Census tract 06075020500: 354 departing, 292 arriving, net -62.
  • Census tract 06075032901: 339 departing, 279 arriving, net -60.
  • Census tract 06075010500: 318 departing, 261 arriving, net -57.
  • Census tract 06075061501: 455 departing, 398 arriving, net -57.
  • Census tract 06075035400: 302 departing, 249 arriving, net -53.
  • Census tract 06075030201: 312 departing, 261 arriving, net -51.
  • Census tract 06075040100: 247 departing, 199 arriving, net -48.
  • Census tract 06075016200: 285 departing, 238 arriving, net -47.
  • Census tract 06075031100: 240 departing, 194 arriving, net -46.
  • Census tract 06075032700: 203 departing, 159 arriving, net -44.
  • Census tract 06075025502: 93 departing, 50 arriving, net -43.
  • Census tract 06075035101: 190 departing, 151 arriving, net -39.
  • Census tract 06075021800: 213 departing, 175 arriving, net -38.
  • Census tract 06075016601: 266 departing, 231 arriving, net -35.
  • Census tract 06075042700: 160 departing, 126 arriving, net -34.
  • Census tract 06075047701: 190 departing, 157 arriving, net -33.
  • Census tract 06075033001: 196 departing, 163 arriving, net -33.
  • Census tract 06075022801: 237 departing, 204 arriving, net -33.
  • Census tract 06075018000: 425 departing, 394 arriving, net -31.

Why an origin-destination map is a deadhead map

What the imbalance actually tells you.

Every trip has to be balanced by the fleet: a vehicle that ends a trip in one tract has to get to wherever the next trip begins. When a tract takes in far more trips than it sends out — a downtown at close of business, an airport, a stadium — the vehicles that arrive there have to leave empty to find their next rider. That empty leg is deadhead, and this map shows the tracts that generate it.

The figure it grounds is the deadhead ratio: the share of all driving that carries no passenger. That page says how much of the driving is empty; this one says where the emptiness is produced. Only the metros with a tract-level trip filing appear here — Waymo files origin and destination counts for its densest service areas and redacts them elsewhere, so the map is a window, not the whole picture.