Waymo is offering Bay Area riders a new incentive to help integrate its driverless cars with public transit. Soon, passengers who use a Waymo and tap a Visa card to ride public transportation within two hours will get bus fare money as credit.

The program, announced on Tuesday, will initially be available to Waymo employees only, before it rolls out to the public in the coming weeks, the company said. The promotion applies to all 27 Bay Area transit agencies that accept contactless Visa payments.

Here’s how it works: Riders will get to link a Visa card in the Waymo app. When the same card is used for a Waymo ride and a transit trip within two hours, Waymo will automatically issue $2.85 — the cost of a bus fare in San Francisco to the user.

The company is pitching the program as a way to make connections between transit and their fleet cheaper and more seamless.

“Public transit networks and shared autonomous vehicles are part of a complementary mobility ecosystem,” Waymo said in its announcement.

The program comes as Waymo continues its rapid expansion across the Bay Area.

The company in August received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to gradually expand its service area into the East Bay and Wine Country, including the possibility of driverless travel from south of San Jose to Bodega Bay and Sea Ranch in Sonoma County.

In San Francisco, Waymo also recently unveiled Ojai vehicles, a minivan vehicle that is wheelchair-accessible and has a large cabin and trunk.

The push comes as Waymo continues to face scrutiny over growing pains for its expansion. San Francisco residents have long complained about Waymos blocking emergency vehicles or malfunctioning in the middle of public streets. On Independence Day this year, a fleet of Waymos was stalled near the Golden Gate Bridge, creating a massive traffic jam as revelers watched fireworks from the waterfront nearby.

San Francisco’s emergency management chief wrote that Waymo “continues to (wreak) havoc on the streets,” according to records obtained by the Chronicle.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie recently backed proposed federal legislation that would establish safety standards for how autonomous vehicles communicate with emergency responders and allow officials to digitally fence off areas during emergencies.

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