What just happened? The road is a little clearer for Waymo’s self-driving taxi ambitions in California. The autonomous vehicle company scored a pair of regulatory wins this week that paved the way for expanding its robotaxi service beyond San Francisco and into new markets like the SF Peninsula and Los Angeles.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) reaffirmed its previous decision from March, giving Waymo the green light to operate commercial driverless ride-hailing services in San Mateo County and Los Angeles. The San Francisco Chronicle notes that the decision overrules protests from local officials in those areas who were trying to pump the brakes on Waymo’s expansion plans.
The CPUC ruling was initially supposed to take effect in March, but it got held up by opposition from cities arguing they should have more say in regulating the robot car companies cruising their streets. San Mateo County and LA pushed to delay Waymo’s rollout until city governments could exert greater local control.
A proposed state bill that would’ve granted local governments authority over self-driving vehicles operating in their jurisdictions boosted county officials’ hopes. Unfortunately, the bill’s sponsor, Senator Dave Cortese, withdrew it from consideration earlier this week.
Cortese claims the Assembly Transportation Committee was planning to amend the bill to strip out the “local control” provisions that were its core purpose, leaving it with no teeth. So, Cortese figured it was better to park the bill for now and try reviving it next year.
Concerns raised by local officials are not unfounded. In May, NHTSA revealed crash data raising safety concerns about Waymo’s latest self-driving system, including 17 wrecks and five possible violations like running lights or striking parked cars shortly after erratic behavior near traffic signals.
Of course, this whole regulatory tug-of-war stems from the reality that Waymo and Cruise were the first to launch commercial driverless taxi services. That kicked off a power struggle between the state regulators who enabled it and the city officials feeling left out of the loop.
San Francisco’s city attorney even has an ongoing lawsuit to overturn the state’s SF robotaxis approval. However, that battle is being fought with diminishing ammunition with this latest CPUC decision. That said, Waymo has yet to reveal specifics on when it might start commercial driverless rides in San Mateo County.
