Waymo and Cruise are officially getting into San Francisco.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently approved Resolutions that grant the previously mentioned companies permission to expand their business in San Francisco.
Waymo and Cruise have previously announced they are expanding their services to San Francisco prior to the CPUC's announcement.
A Waymo autonomous vehicle drives by San Francisco City Hall on April 11, 2022 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco is serving as testing grounds for autonomous vehicles with Waymo, a Google subsidiary and Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, logging millions of test miles throughout San Francisco in 2021.
The Future Is Now
The CPUC mentioned in its released statement that it had approved Resolutions granting additional operating authority for Cruise and Waymo to expand the coverage of their services to San Francisco and charge fares for the ride they provide at any time.
According to a report from Tech Crunch, the CPUC voted 3-1 in support of the expansions, with Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma casting the only "no" vote.
However, there are some limitations that these two companies must abide by. For Crusie's side, it can only offer fared passenger services in limited areas of San Francisco with its driverless robotaxis from 10 PM to 6 AM. However, they can provide passenger service throughout the city at any time and charge fares if its robotaxis come with a safety driver.
Meanwhile, the CPUC gave similar limitations for Waymo: the company can offer its fared passenger service in the city at any time with or without a safety driver present in its robotaxis. It is also allowed to offer non-fared passenger service in parts of Los Angeles and in and around Mountain View with or without a safety driver present.
CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds stated that while the government agency has yet to receive data to judge robotaxis against standard human drivers, he believes Waymo and Cruise's expansion of their services to San Francisco can increase safety on the roadway.
"Collaboration between key stakeholders in the industry and the first responder community will be vital in resolving issues as they arise in this innovative, emerging technology space," Reynolds added.
A Divided City
Despite Reynolds' statement, the commissioners under the CPUC are urging both companies to address problems San Francisco officials and residents raised. The Verge reported that San Francisco residents voiced their opposition to Waymo and Cruise's expansion to the city for six hours due to the problems they aired out.
These problems include robotaxis blocking roads, causing traffic jams, and impeding emergency vehicles. As such, they "forcefully" lobbied for a more measured rollout of the companies' vehicles, per Reuters.
You may remember that Waymo's robotaxis have a history of blocking traffic, impeding public transit, and stumbling into emergencies.
However, CPUC Commissioner Darcie Houck assured that the government agency could vote to limit the number of vehicles allowed on the road if Waymo and Crusie's robotaxis become a nuisance.
They could even revoke the companies' permits altogether if the issue is severe enough to warrant a like-sized response.
As of press time, both companies only offer limited services, with Cruise and Waymo having said they would expand incrementally, and not all at once.
