California Approves Waymo and Cruise Robotaxis

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the agency responsible for taxi regulations among other things, today voted 3-1 to allow self-driving taxi operations by Waymo and Cruise to operate around the clock in San Francisco and charge fares.

Before the vote, Waymo and Cruise were allowed to beta test the commercial service, with limits on the number of passengers, fees and areas of operation. Now, the companies can charge for rides and operate around the clock throughout the city. Both companies have argued that self-driving cars will lower ridesharing costs and save lives. In the first million driverless miles, Waymo’s vehicles were involved in only two reportable collisions, and Cruise reported 73 percent fewer collisions with “significant risk of injury” than its human performance comparison.

Self-driving cars had faced fierce opposition from a coalition of unions, local activists and politicians in San Francisco, and the interest had also been reflected in a long line of citizens who came to the CPUC meeting to voice their opinions.

This marks a milestone in the development of autonomous cars and now serves as a global signal that after many years of development and tens of billions in funding, this technology is now mature and can scale to other regions.

Cruise shared the prices for the rides in an email immediately after the vote.

This article was also published in German.