Eighteen months ago, we watched with arms-length fascination as driverless robotaxis hit the streets of San Francisco. We asked "What could go wrong?" here. Cruise has since retracted its service in SF and elsewhere after a grisly accident where its robotaxi was the second vehicle to hit a pedestrian. Now Waymo is ready to come down the Peninsula as reported by the Chronicle. The DMV is apparently game:
The company leading the robotaxi race wants to expand driverless ride-hailing to Los Angeles and 22 Bay Area cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties — even as San Francisco is suing to rein in its expansion. Last Friday, Mountain View-based Waymo applied to the PUC, which regulates commercial robotaxi service in California, to expand its paid driverless operations to a swath of Peninsula cities including Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Mateo, as well as much of Los Angeles County.
Another state regulator, the Department of Motor Vehicles, gave Waymo approval on Jan. 11 to operate on highways and city streets in a service area spanning San Francisco to Sunnyvale, according to the company’s PUC application.
One of the juiciest operating permits would be to and from SFO
San Francisco International Airport officials confirmed last year that Waymo sought permission to map roads in and surrounding the airport as it seeks to eventually bring its driverless ride-hailing service to the region’s busiest airport.
“I’m being very candid and straightforward about it — I’m using that as an opportunity to try to force a more collaborative relationship with Waymo,” Aaron Peskin, president of the Board of Supervisors, told the Chronicle in November. “And if they take us up on it, great. And if they don’t, then I’m going to have the Board of Supervisors keep them off the airport until they do.”
Let's not let EssEff take complete control. B'game should be asking questions and seeking proof that Waymo can navigate odd roundabouts and weird lane patterns like California Dr. What is the algorithm like regarding pedestrians in (and now legally outside of) crosswalks. One hears that robotaxis are obeying traffic laws more than HV (human-driven vehicles), but how do they react to crazy drivers breaking the law by going around cautious robos? If your destination is a building on El Camino, where will Waymo park to disembark? Will they just add to the Amazon, UPS and DHL mess we have now on ECR? All worthwhile questions for our leadership to ask. It may not be as sexy as sea-level rise in 2050, but it's still important.
I never understood why the UPS and Amazon trucks don't get ticketed for parking (parking!) in the right hand lane of El Camino.
Posted by: resident | January 31, 2024 at 06:54 PM
A Waymo car (with test driver) just drove past our house on a residential street (two blocks off ECR) here in B’game this morning.
Posted by: Observer | February 10, 2024 at 09:58 AM
Does our esteemed city council have the brains to ask Waymo for the test drive results?
Posted by: resident | February 10, 2024 at 10:29 PM
Check this out from the Comicle site:
Vandals set off fireworks in driverless Waymo car, incinerating it in S.F.’s Chinatown
A Waymo vehicle was vandalized and then set on fire in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Saturday night, according to the Fire Department.
A group of people surrounded the vehicle on Jackson Street to record vandals breaking the car’s windows with a skateboard and tagging the car, according to videos posted on social media. The vehicle appeared to be unoccupied.
Fireworks were lit inside of the car, “which ultimately caught the entire vehicle on fire,” the San Francisco Fire Department posted on X at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
Photos of the aftermath show the vehicle completely charred. It was unclear whether anyone was arrested. A spokesperson for Waymo said in a statement that the vehicle was operating in autonomous mode and had just completed a drop-off when it was vandalized.
Posted by: Joe | February 11, 2024 at 02:20 PM
Now the County is asking for some say, per the Merc:
San Mateo County is pushing back on a proposal to bring driverless taxis to the Peninsula’s streets and highways.
In a letter to regulators, the county opposed a request by robot-driven taxi service Waymo to expand its operations beyond San Francisco. Waymo and competitor Cruise have experienced safety problems in San Francisco, including several instances where driverless cars caused traffic congestion and impeded emergency responders.
“Waymo failed to communicate in any depth or detail with county staff about the specifics of Waymo’s proposal to expand its operations, largely unfettered, into San Mateo County,” read the county’s letter last week to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates autonomous vehicles throughout the state.
The protest letter was signed by county attorney John Nibbelin and dated Feb. 8, the deadline to submit objections to Waymo’s expansion plans.
Posted by: Joe | February 15, 2024 at 01:58 PM
Another Waymo car on El Camino this afternoon with a driver.
Posted by: resident | February 21, 2024 at 04:41 PM
This just in via a Merc news alert:
A plan by robotaxi company Waymo to expand its driverless service down the Peninsula has hit a four-month regulatory delay.
The commission (Ed: the CPUC) on Friday issued a notice that Waymo’s Peninsula application — and its proposal to take paid fares in Los Angeles — would be suspended for 120 days to allow “further staff review.”
San Mateo Supervisor David Canepa said the delay would “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.”
Waymo said Wednesday it had completed a dozen training sessions for the North San Mateo County Fire Authority, four for the Menlo Park Police Department, two for the South San Francisco Fire Department, and one each for the San Bruno and Colma police departments. Training sessions have been scheduled with South San Mateo County Fire, the South San Francisco Fire Department, and South San Francisco, San Mateo and East Palo Alto police, Waymo said.
--------------------------
I guess BPD is down the priority list.
Posted by: Joe | February 21, 2024 at 05:07 PM
All systems are apparently cleared to go:
State regulators on Friday approved Waymo’s request to allow driverless taxis to operate on the Peninsula.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) stated in a disposition letter that Waymo’s driverless taxis can begin picking up fared passengers immediately. The commission’s Consumer Enforcement and Protection Division (CEPD) found that “Waymo has complied with the requirements of the deployment decision.”
The company will be allowed to operate on roads and highways along the Peninsula, as well as in Los Angeles.
“I find this to be egregious and disingenuous,” said San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa, one of the loudest voices against autonomous vehicles on the Peninsula. “I thought the CPUC gave us 120 days to sit down with Waymo and discuss our concerns here in San Mateo County… We have had no talks to address our concerns and it says to me that neither Waymo nor the CPUC care about local concerns over the public safety of residents.”
Posted by: Joe | March 01, 2024 at 05:02 PM
Thanks Joe:
Active Vehicle Time/Total Available Vehicle Time x 100 = Vehicle Utilization Rate
Big Government will force you out of your personal cars if your Utilization rate equals their set standard.
Just a matter of time?
Posted by: Timothy Hooker | March 02, 2024 at 04:37 AM
Sacramento is getting into the Waymo regulation arena. From the Merc:
Assembly Bill 3061, introduced by Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, would help address the transparency issue. Autonomous-vehicle companies currently must report to the DMV any collision that results in property damage, bodily injury or death, and the reports are available online. But these requirements apply only to cars being tested, not those actually deployed.
Haney’s bill would require the companies to report to the DMV collisions during deployment as well, and the agency would have to publish incident reports on its website within 30 days. This change is no-brainer. It’s time to bring full transparency to the safety records of autonomous vehicles during both testing and deployment.
Senate Bill 915, introduced by Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, would give local governments the authority to say yes or no to driverless cars on their roads and create local rules such as capping the number of cars operating in a certain area or setting maximum fares.
Posted by: Joe | April 16, 2024 at 11:07 AM
One wonders if the CPUC reads the news:
The U.S. government’s highway safety agency has opened another investigation of automated driving systems, this time into crashes involving Waymo’s self-driving vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted documents detailing the probe on its website early Tuesday after getting 22 reports of Waymo vehicles either crashing or doing something that may have violated traffic laws.
In the probe of Waymo, which was once Google’s self-driving vehicle unit, the agency said it has reports of 17 crashes and five other reports of possible traffic law violations. No injuries were reported.
In the crashes, the Waymo vehicles hit stationary objects such as gates, chains or parked vehicles. Some of the incidents happened shortly after the Waymo driving system behaved unexpectedly near traffic control devices, according to the documents.
---------------------
We have no lack of "traffic control devices" to confuse Waymo.......
Posted by: Joe | May 15, 2024 at 11:26 AM
Waymo moves even closer:
Autonomous vehicle companies won two key regulatory battles this week that allow Waymo to move forward with expansion plans to the Peninsula and preserve California’s authority over the emerging industry.
On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission upheld its March decision to approve Waymo’s expansion from San Francisco to San Mateo County and Los Angeles over protests from local officials.
Earlier in the week, state Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, withdrew a bill that would have given cities the power to regulate the operations of autonomous vehicles within their boundaries. Cortese said he shelved the bill, which had a scheduled hearing Monday in the Assembly Transportation Committee, because the committee wanted to strip “the bill’s essential element of local control.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/self-driving-cars-waymo-sf-19523750.php
Posted by: Joe | June 22, 2024 at 12:44 PM
Waymo is getting close to you.
Waymo is expanding its Bay Area robotaxi operations beyond San Francisco for the first time, with its driverless cars now serving a 10-square-mile portion of the Peninsula.
The Alphabet-owned company announced Tuesday that, effective immediately, Waymo riders in San Francisco can now hail rides through the Waymo One app to Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma — and vice versa. The expanded service area now includes San Francisco neighborhoods on the periphery of the city’s Daly City border that weren’t previously accessible by Waymo robotaxis, such as the Outer Mission, Crocker-Amazon and Sunnydale.
Though the company is testing its vehicles on freeways with human backup drivers, Waymo’s robotaxis will stick to local roads while carrying passengers.
Posted by: Karen and Richard Carpenter | August 07, 2024 at 11:36 AM