March 5 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Waymo said on

Tuesday it will begin driverless passenger services for its

employees in Austin, Texas starting Wednesday.

The company said the services would be available across 43

square miles of the city, including downtown Austin, Barton

Hills, Riverside, East Austin and Hyde Park

Waymo said it will open its ride-hailing program, Waymo One,

to the public in Austin at a later date, adding that this will

make Austin the fourth ride-hailing city after San Francisco,

Phoenix and Los Angeles.

"Our disciplined deployment in Texas' capital brings us one

step closer to safely delivering the benefits of fully

autonomous driving to many more people," Waymo product chief

Saswat Panigrahi said.

The company received approval to begin its fared completely

driverless robotaxi services in Los Angeles and some cities near

San Francisco, by the California Public Utilities Commission

(CPUC).

Waymo and its rival General Motors' ( GM ) Cruise have faced

hostility towards its self driving services following collisions

with the public.

A Waymo robotaxi was attacked and set on fire in February as

it stopped amid Chinese New Year celebrations in San Francisco's

Chinatown, followed an incident in which another Waymo car

struck a bicyclist at a city intersection.