State regulators say Waymo can expand its driverless ride-hailing operations to the Peninsula and Los Angeles, marking a massive commercial expansion that launched last year in San Francisco.
The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates robotaxi services in the state, on Friday approved a request by the Alphabet-owned company to expand further in the Bay Area and Los Angeles County. The commission said in its ruling that the company’s request, filed Jan. 19, complied with regulatory requirements.
Specifically, the PUC’s decision permits the company to deploy its robotaxis on local roads and freeways at speeds of up to 65 mph, with no cap on fleet size.
“Waymo may begin fared driverless passenger service operations in the specified areas of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula, effective today,” reads a Friday ruling by the commission’s Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division.
The PUC’s decision comes amid fierce opposition from local officials on the Peninsula and in Los Angeles who, like San Francisco officials, are vying to have more say over how autonomous vehicle companies can deploy their emerging technology on local streets.
Officials in San Mateo County and Los Angeles opposed Waymo’s expansion request and have thrown their support behind a bill pending in the Legislature that would give localities more local control over robotaxi deployment.
The latest regulatory approval means that Waymo’s service in the Bay Area will expand from San Francisco to 22 cities on the Peninsula, covering a geographic area east of Interstate 280 to Sunnyvale. The company is also allowed to expand its driverless ride-hailing, effective immediately, to a large swath of Los Angeles.
It’s not immediately clear how Waymo will utilize its new authority to expand. The company got the PUC’s permission, along with its rival Cruise, for unlimited commercial expansion in San Francisco last August, though its ride-hailing services in the city remain available only to users who’ve been approved off a waitlist.
A company spokesperson told the Chronicle earlier this month that its San Francisco fleet numbers 250 robotaxis. It’s not yet clear to what extent the company will expand its driverless ride-hailing on the Peninsula and in Los Angeles, and whether the company will follow a limited deployment strategy similar to how it scaled in San Francisco.
Another uncertainty is whether Waymo will decide to deploy its robotaxis on freeways.
The company’s robotaxis currently don’t take passengers on freeways in San Francisco. Waymo has been operating driverless ride-hailing in Phoenix since 2020 with service limited to local roads there, as well. The company for years has been testing its robotaxis on freeways with a human backup driver and announced last month that it began testing driverless ride-hailing on Phoenix freeways with company employees.
“As always, we’ll take a careful and incremental approach to expansion by continuing to work closely with city officials, local communities and our partners to ensure we’re offering a service that’s safe, accessible and valuable to our riders,” Waymo said in a statement. “We’re incredibly grateful for the riders and community partners who have supported our service to date — including +15,000 rides thus far in LA — and we’re looking forward to bringing the benefits of fully autonomous ride-hailing to more people.”
The PUC’s approval marks another milestone in the long and bumpy road for the autonomous vehicle industry, which has seen much consolidation in recent years.
Waymo and General Motors-owned Cruise are the largest robotaxi companies left standing in the U.S. and the only two companies that have been given permission to operate driverless robotaxis in California.
Dozens of other self-driving car companies also have permission from state regulators to test their technology with safety drivers, though none have logged the amount of activity — either with a driver or driverless — than Waymo and Cruise. Last month, Apple folded its efforts to develop a driverless vehicle after ramping up testing mileage in California last year.
Friday’s decision gives Waymo an opportunity to seize a greater foothold on the emerging robotaxi market. Cruise remains banned indefinitely in California for its alleged response to an October crash where a company robotaxi dragged a jaywalking pedestrian 20 feet. The company has yet to resume its driverless operations, which it paused nationwide in late October.
Robotaxis have drawn a polarizing response in San Francisco, with some residents hailing them as safer alternatives to human driving and others viewing them as a nuisance. City first responders have documented more than 85 instances where self-driving cars impeded first response efforts — an experience that has fueled other Californima cities’ opposition. The Cruise crash further fanned tensions in San Francisco.
Friday’s decision seemed to come as a surprise to Waymo and local officials.
The PUC issued a 120-day suspension of Waymo’s application in mid-February to review the company’s expansion request. That decision seemed to mirror the beginning of a monthslong approval process similar to the commission’s San Francisco decision. The commission last year twice delayed the pivotal vote to allow Waymo and Cruise to expand because of stiff opposition from San Francisco officials.
But a commission spokesperson on Friday likened the 120-day suspension to “a ceiling, not a floor,” and said the PUC “required a little extra time beyond” the usual timeframe to make a ruling.
San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa called the PUC’s decision “egregious and disingenuous.”
“I thought CPUC gave us 120 days to sit down with Waymo and discuss our concerns here in San Mateo County. I’m confused and a bit suspicious that the CPUC took only 11 days to change its mind on the suspension,” Canepa said in a statement. “We have had no talks to address our concerns and it says to me that neither Waymo nor the CPUC care about local concerns about the public safety of our residents. This is why we need SB 915 by state Sen. Dave Cortese to pass in the Legislature. We need some local control over how robotaxis operate in the county because we know our roads and highways the best.”
