Google’s Waymo’s plans to expand its robotaxi service beyond San Francisco have been stalled by California regulators.
tech crunch report Google’s Waymo has hit a temporary roadblock in its plans to expand its commercial robotaxi service beyond its current San Francisco footprint. The California Public Utilities Commission’s Consumer Protection Enforcement Division (CPED) recently announced a 120-day suspension of Waymo’s application to provide driverless taxi service in additional areas of Los Angeles and San Mateo counties.
The outage will reportedly give CPED staff additional time to review applications to expand Waymo’s operational design domain (ODD). The ODD defines the geographic areas in which the company’s self-driving cars can legally drive.
The outage will not affect Waymo’s current San Francisco service, but it will delay the company’s ability to expand in other parts of California until at least June. The California DMV had already approved Waymo’s ODD expansion request last month.
Some local officials expressed satisfaction with CPED’s decision to halt expansion for the time being. San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa said the moratorium “will provide an opportunity to fully engage with self-driving vehicle manufacturers about our very real public safety concerns.” Stated. He cited the “dangerous situation for firefighters and police” created by robotaxis in neighboring San Francisco.
Waymo claims to have conducted outreach to 20 government agencies and business organizations in San Mateo County during the expansion planning process. However, the City of South San Francisco officially opposes the proposal.
On the Los Angeles side, Waymo has been offering free self-driving cars to approved members of the public in Santa Monica since last March. With CPED’s suspension, the company is still unable to offer a full commercial robo-taxi service in Southern California and charge for rides.
Other companies such as Cruise currently operate self-driving taxis in San Francisco, but Waymo was moving quickly to expand its geographic footprint. CPED’s decision means speeding up these plans, even if the suspension turns out to be temporary.
Earlier this month, Breitbart News reported that a Waymo robotaxis collided with a bicycle in San Francisco.
Waymo vehicles came to a four-way stop when the large truck began to enter the intersection, Waymo spokeswoman Julia Irina said in a statement. The Waymo vehicle entered the intersection after waiting its turn, but could not see the cyclist who was riding behind the truck.
“The cyclist was blocked by the truck and immediately followed the truck and crossed into the path of the Waymo vehicle,” Irina said. “When the collision became fully visible, our car braked hard, but we were unable to avoid the collision.”
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship issues.
