Waymo received approval Friday afternoon from the California Public Utilities Commission to operate a commercial robotaxi service in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Peninsula and on San Francisco freeways.
The approval removes the final hurdle for Alphabet to charge for flights in these expanded areas. More importantly, it opens up a new territory for Waymo in one of the country's largest cities and opens a route to San Francisco International Airport, which is located south of the city.
Waymo has operated commercial service 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout San Francisco since receiving commission approval in August. Waymo is also allowed to give people free driverless rides in parts of Los Angeles. But until today's approval, it had not been able to charge for rides in Los Angeles.
Last month, the CPUC's Division of Consumer Protection and Enforcement suspended Waymo's application to expand its robot service in Los Angeles and San Mateo counties for up to 120 days to provide additional review time. The CPUC said it received 81 responses and five protests, which the agency said “required slightly additional time after 30 days to carefully review and incorporate into the staff decision.” The five protests came from the city of South San Francisco, San Mateo County, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance.
Waymo, which began a community tour in Los Angeles in October, was wrapping up its final stop in the neighborhood as it awaited final approval.
Image credits: TechCrunch
The CPUC's decision comes just one day after Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana discussed the future of the company and the broader self-driving vehicle industry on stage at StrictlyVC LA. She said Waymo's robotaxis have received a “warm welcome” in the city with more than 15,000 people using the service. Mawakana said flight data showed customers were using the service for daily errands, evidence she said indicated the service would be a commercial success in Los Angeles.
“It's exciting to see that nearly 2,000 of these trips are people doing very basic tasks, right? Doing a task on Waymo is like using it for your life,” Maucana said. “Similarly, people are taking it to restaurants and bars on the same number, like 2,000 trips. And then 300 of those trips are for people going to school and college as well as K-12. So, we like this signal that people are not Not only do they welcome us warmly, but they really integrate into their lives.
She said 50,000 people had joined the waiting list to use the service in Los Angeles.
Mawakana suggested Thursday evening that Waymo wouldn't immediately start charging for rides in Los Angeles if it got approval (which, of course, it did a day later).
“We will, as we did in San Francisco, expand our services before we start charging fees,” she said. “And I mean we kind of bring it in and you'll be able to try that for a couple of months or several months without paying. And then we have that moment of truth, which we had in San Francisco, which is we started charging, and then we found out how many people [have] Really integrate it into their lives. What price are they willing to pay?
You can watch the full interview below.
