Passengers board a Waymo electric vehicle with full self-driving technology in Santa Monica
Allen J. Chapin | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
alphabet The Waymo robotaxi unit has received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to expand service to parts of Los Angeles and the Bay Area, according to a notice posted on the regulator's website on Friday.
“Waymo may begin driverless ride-hailing operations in select areas in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula, starting today,” the statement read.
In mid-February, Waymo filed a voluntary recall notice with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, saying it would fix the software issues. The recall follows two previously undisclosed incidents that occurred in Phoenix on December 11, in which Waymo's unmanned vehicles collided with the same towed pickup truck within minutes of each other.
The collisions heightened existing concerns about the use of self-driving vehicles in California. Rival taxi and ride-hailing providers and labor activists worry about losing driver jobs, while safety advocates have written letters to regulators and politicians asking them to thwart Waymo's expansion in the state.
The CPUC in February suspended Waymo's expansion efforts for up to 120 days to provide additional time for review.
The regulator said in its letter on Friday that it approved the new proposal, in part because of Waymo's “updated Passenger Safety Plan (PSP), submitted in connection with an expanded Operational Design Domain (ODD) for deployment,” which was also approved by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. .
“We are grateful to the CPUC for this vote of confidence in our operations, which paves the way for the rollout of our Waymo One commercial service in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula,” a Waymo spokesperson said in a statement.
Waymo's lead in California comes next General MotorsCruz owned and apple California has withdrawn from the self-driving car business, while Elon Musk Tesla It has not yet developed an autonomous vehicle that can operate safely without a human driver controlling it.
Regulators in California halted self-driving robo-taxi operations in October after a series of accidents, including one that resulted in a robo-taxi flipping over a pedestrian who was first struck by a human-driven car and then pulled forward about 20 feet by a taxi. Cruise vehicle.
Waymo's new approvals allow the company's robotaxis to operate near Tesla's engineering headquarters in Palo Alto in San Mateo County.
The latest notice applies to commercial ride-sharing service Waymo One. The company has deployed test vehicles in those areas for several years.
Watch: A crowd burns Waymo in San Francisco
