Waymo has announced plans to expand its embattled self-driving car service to Los Angeles and San Mateo counties in California, despite pushback from local officials citing safety concerns after a difficult trial period for robotaxis. approved by the regulatory authorities.
The robotaxi startup, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has received permission from the California Public Utilities Commission to expand its service, but the agency is unsure when Waymo could start operating in America’s second-largest city. It was reported that the details have not been disclosed. Los Angeles Times.
Local leaders have expressed safety concerns after a rocky test drive of a robotaxi in Los Angeles failed to stop despite directions from a traffic police officer.
L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the CPUC’s approval a “dangerous decision,” according to the LA Times.
“These robotaxis are too untested and Angelenos should not be Big Tech’s guinea pigs. Decisions like this should be informed by the city and made over the city’s objections. It should not be done,” Hearn added in a statement to the media.
Concerns about self-driving cars have worsened in recent months, as it seems like all companies developing self-driving cars are facing safety issues. That includes Tesla, which recalled virtually all of its vehicles late last year over regulators’ concerns that its Autopilot system was unsafe.
Meanwhile, General Motors’ Cruise Corp. is under multiple federal investigations after one of its robot taxis dragged a pedestrian who collided with another car.
A Waymo spokesperson told the Post that the company is “thankful to the CPUC for this vote of confidence in our business, which paves the way for the rollout of commercial Waymo One service in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula.” Told.
A company representative also said that Waymo is “carefully moving forward with our expansion by continuing to work closely with city officials, communities, and partners to ensure we provide a service that is safe, accessible, and valuable to our passengers.” And we will take a gradual approach.”
Representatives for the CPUC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Waymo touted the service as part of a test process underway in Los Angeles starting last year, taxiing public passengers around the city in fully autonomous white Jaguars during an invitation-only period.
Approvals in Los Angeles and San Mateo counties give Waymo access to more than 4,500 square miles of land. This is significantly larger than the area of the company’s other two cities, San Francisco and Phoenix (47 square miles and 517 square miles, respectively).
Peter Finn, president of Teamsters Joint Council 7, a labor union representing freight and delivery truck drivers, said the incident occurred after two Waymo vehicles collided with the same pickup truck within minutes of each other. It was pointed out to the LA Times that Waymo was issued a recall a month ago. Especially.
“The fact that this permission was granted after such a fiasco speaks volumes about the due diligence conducted during this process and how Waymo will respond positively to both regulators and the public. It raises a lot of questions,” Finn told the LA Times.
The company’s self-driving taxis began operating in Phoenix in 2018. Arizona state regulatory approval to operate as a transportation network company (TNC).
Obtaining a TNC license will allow Waymo, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, to begin operating as a business similar to Uber and Lyft, which have also been granted TNC status.
An Arizona Department of Transportation spokesperson told the Post at the time that TNC licenses do not differentiate between human-driven and self-driving vehicles.
Waymo has been based in San Francisco since 2021. Last year, an online DMV report that said a Waymo vehicle was “in self-driving mode” but “did not survive” a fatal accident involving a small dog, heightened concerns about the safety of self-driving cars. Ta. ”
The May 2023 report said a “test driver was present” in the driver’s seat, but the vehicle’s automated driving system (ADS) was under control.
Officials from South San Francisco, San Mateo and Los Angeles counties, as well as several transit agencies, sent letters of opposition to the CPUC, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation also argued that regulations need to be tightened and exit procedures standardized before self-driving cars can be introduced.
According to the LA Times, the DOT’s letter states, “Any expansion by Waymo would be a violation of the rules promulgated without meaningful coordination with local jurisdictions for these companies and those considering entering the market.” “This would set a precedent for the development of such measures without security measures in place.”
However, currently local governments have no say in the commercial deployment of self-driving cars.
