State regulators approved the application of driverless car service company Waymo on March 1, effective immediately, to expand in areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco following a brief pause.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) had suspended Waymo’s request to expand on Feb. 21, giving commissioners until June 19 to review plans of the startup owned by Google parent company Alphabet amid pushback from officials in San Mateo and Los Angeles counties.
The temporary suspension was needed to “carefully” review 81 responses and five protests received, in response to Waymo’s application, known as an “advice letter,” a spokesperson for the commission told The Epoch Times on March 1.
Those in opposition included officials from the city of Los Angeles and San Mateo County, who said the company had only limited discussions with city and county officials about its expansion plans.
“Since Waymo has stalled any meaningful discussions on its expansion plans into Silicon Valley, the CPUC has put the brakes on its application to test robotaxi service virtually unfettered both in San Mateo and Los Angeles counties,” San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Vice President David Canepa said in a statement following the temporary suspension last month.
At the time, Mr. Canepa hoped the suspension would give county officials more time to address their questions about public safety.
A cyclist passes in front of a Waymo autonomous vehicle in San Francisco on Nov. 17, 2023. (Jason Henry/AFP via Getty Images)
“This will provide the opportunity to fully engage the autonomous vehicle maker on our very real public safety concerns that have caused all kinds of dangerous situations for firefighters and police in neighboring San Francisco,” he said.
But in the approval letter, the commission said the county’s complaints didn’t meet certain criteria to delay their decision, saying “the submissions do not state proper grounds for protest.”
The commission said several parties, including the City of South San Francisco, San Mateo, Los Angeles Department of Transportation, San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance had protested the expansion, arguing the company failed to provide “sufficient notice or opportunities” for public input, among other complaints.
But such arguments “do not establish an issue with the advice letter process,” according to the commission.
In addition, the approval letter said the company’s new features and safety protocols “demonstrate Waymo’s attention to continuous evaluation and improvement of its technology, safety practices, and aspects of its operations involving humans (such as Rider Support and Remote Assistance) that minimize risk of driverless passenger service operations in a larger and more diverse [area].”
Waymo, which uses autonomous vehicles for ridesharing services, already provides thousands of rides to people each day, the Mountain View, California-based company said in its Jan. 19 letter at the time, noting that it has already provided more than 1 million driverless rides in California and Arizona.
A Waymo driverless car in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 2024. (Steve Jennings/Getty Images)
The company operates in San Francisco at all hours of the day, from Lands End to Bernal Heights, according to its website. It also began offering free rides for a limited time in portions of Los Angeles County including Santa Monica, Century City, West Hollywood, and downtown Los Angeles. Angelenos can join the waitlist for a free ride by visiting the company’s website or attending a pop-up event.
The company received approval from the Department of Motor Vehicles—which also regulates the deployment and testing of driverless vehicles—in January to deploy vehicles in the San Francisco Peninsula, as well as additional areas in central Los Angeles.
Officials in Northern California weren’t alone in their unease about the company’s plans. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in November 2023 sent a letter to the president of the CPUC, Alice Reynolds, citing “serious concerns” she had with the expansion.
Ms. Bass said the deployment of autonomous vehicles requires local input and collaborative efforts between state agencies, cities, and the industry to “set clear regulations,” which would in turn maximize benefits from the new technology while ensuring public safety.
Los Angeles has been mostly in the dark when it comes to the expansion plan, she said in the letter at the time.
“To date, local jurisdictions like Los Angeles have had little to no input in [autonomous vehicle] deployment and are already seeing significant harm and disruption,” she said.
In a board of supervisors meeting earlier this month, San Mateo County officials approved a resolution in support of Senate Bill 915, which would give local governments authority to decide whether driverless cars could be deployed within their jurisdictions.
On Feb. 10, one of Waymo’s driverless vehicles came under attack by a mob and destroyed in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco, with fireworks lit inside and graffiti tagged on the vehicle, before the vehicle caught fire.
