On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission passed a 3 to 1 vote permitting two rival firms--Alphabet-owned Waymo and General Motors-owned Cruise--to provide San Francisco with round-the-clock robotaxi service. This makes San Francisco the first major U.S. city to allow two robotaxi companies to operate throughout the day and night. On Friday night, as many as 10 of Cruise's driverless vehicles were seen near the city's North Beach, causing a 15-minute traffic jam as their hazard lights were blinking.
On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 3 to 1 in favor of authorizing round-the-clock robotaxi service in San Francisco from Waymo and Cruise, making the city the first major U.S. destination to permit two such companies to compete for service at all hours of the day or night. The decision paved the way for Waymo—owned by Google parent-company Alphabet—and Cruise, owned by General Motors, to expand their fleets and charge for fares at any time. However, shortly after midnight on Friday, a group of Cruise vehicles reportedly caused a traffic backup while stopped short in the city's North Beach neighborhood, with their hazard lights flashing. This followed strong opposition to the regulatory decision from some local groups, including San Francisco's police and fire departments, which cited a report of at least 600 incidents involving driverless vehicles since June 2022, ranging from disrupting travel to an emergency response zone to contact or near misses with personnel or equipment.
Before permitting round-the-clock service, Waymo and Cruise had limited operating hours in San Francisco. For Cruise, if a safety driver was not present in the car, it could offer fares in certain areas from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. If the rides were free, it could offer that service at any time. If the vehicle did have a safety driver, then the company could charge for fares around-the-clock. In Waymo's case, if there wasn't a safety driver present, it was not able to charge fares for ride-hailing at any time; with a safety driver in the car, however, the company could charge passengers for rides at any time.
Waymo said that over 100,000 people had signed up for its service, and Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of the company, declared that the service expansion "marks the true beginning of our commercial operations" in San Francisco. The company's product management director, Chris Ludwick, noted that they were seeing "incredibly high demand" for their service, and said that they would continue to expand their service and fleet in San Francisco gradually with safety and the needs of local communities in mind. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt discussed plans to "blanket" San Francisco with its vehicles, noting that the city has more than 10,000 human ride-hailing drivers and that it would not take a high number of robotaxis to generate significant revenue.
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