Waymo’s requested service area near San Francisco covers most of the peninsula
Waymo, Alphabet/Google’s robotaxi service, has received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission for its application to expand its robotaxi service area to include the entire San Francisco Peninsula (and much of of Silicon Valley) and much of Los Angeles. area. This will allow them to experiment with services that are much closer in scope to their intended business operations and can turn their service into something profitable.
Previous reports in other media outlets suggested that the PUC had suspended the request and would not act on it until June. These reports were false and, according to Waymo, were the result of a normal delay announcement when a request would not be processed within the normal 30 days. It only took a few more days. These reports were generated because San Mateo County, which contains much of the expanding San Francisco Peninsula, had expressed some opposition to the project. San Mateo County Attorney John Nibbelin reportedly complained to the CPUC that Waymo had failed to communicate properly with them, but he quickly retracted his complaint and admitted that Waymo had met with several board members supervisory and county executive. Waymo also said it has held numerous informational meetings with county stakeholders.
San Mateo’s position and its false claims reflect the hostility that has been present in some other municipalities, particularly in the city of San Francisco. In California, all driving on the roads is regulated by the state DMV and taxi services are regulated by the CPUC. Cities do not have authority over roads, although they do control curbs and parking. This has frustrated some cities, although other places, like the Phoenix area and Austin, have had smoother relationships with robotaxi companies.
Robotaxi companies say they go to great lengths to maintain good relations with the cities they operate in, although they appear reluctant to go too far, concerned about the difficulty of being regulated by the thousands of potential governments in which their vehicles plan to circulate. . Even peninsula expansion puts them in 21 cities and 3 counties, and expansion across the entire Bay Area would more than double that figure. This difficulty is the reason why the power of regulation was left to the States, but this did not make the cities happy. They have been lobbying in Sacramento, and some bills are proposed there that would grant more powers to municipalities, but their prospects for passage are not yet clear.
Serving the Peninsula and Los Angeles is an easier driving task than downtown San Francisco, closer to what they did in Phoenix. Indeed, Waymo was born and did most of its initial travel on the peninsula, so it’s very familiar territory for them. On the other hand, trips, regardless of distance, will need highways to be competitive, and currently Waymo does not transport the public at highway speeds, although they have conducted tests with employees. Driving on the highway is much simpler, but also riskier, due to the severity of any accident. Los Angeles and the SF Peninsula are very “car-dependent” areas, which poses a particular challenge for any taxi-style service. Waymo is likely still banned from SFO Airport, governed by the city of San Francisco, which has made an enemy of Waymo. SJC Airport is just outside its new service area. LAX airport is covered, if they can get permission to go there. Waymo has also encountered resistance in Los Angeles for its expansion,
Waymo application for a service area in Los Angeles
These large service areas constitute a major step. Waymo also covers much of the Phoenix metro area. Once up and running, driving through three major cities will make Waymo a major concern and address criticism (which mostly comes from Tesla supporters who mistakenly believe it’s extremely difficult for robo-taxis that have defined zones service and widely use operating cards). expand to usable service areas.
These new neighborhoods are unlike the dense urban streets of San Francisco. SF has a lot of cars, but also a lot of residents who don’t own a car. It was the birthplace of the ride-sharing business through Sidecar, which was quickly copied by UberX and Lyft who were also born there. The Peninsula and Los Angeles, like Phoenix, have lower density and are cities with high car ownership and automobile dependence. They do not have highly usable public transportation in most of their areas. It’s less difficult to drive there, but more difficult to get people out of their cars and into robo-taxis.
It is also unfortunate that the service areas are not large enough to provide a comprehensive “car replacement” service to many people. SF residents frequently travel to the East Bay and Marin. Silicon Valley residents frequently travel to San Jose, Cupertino, and Santa Clara. This would make it harder for them to decide to replace their car with Waymo, because it can’t take them many of the places they want to go.
That said, the areas are still very large and will allow Waymo to learn a lot and get closer to a true production service, and ultimately one that makes a gross margin, showing a path to profits. Waymo just turned 15, and most companies don’t age that long without their profit trajectory being well defined: that’s the advantage of having a wealthy patron like Google and its visionary founders.
Although Waymo cannot meet the desires of every city in which its vehicles will eventually operate, and the California legislature would be foolish to mandate it, they have learned from San Francisco that they need to do a better job with the very first locations . they arrive by car. Hopefully they will have better relations with San Mateo and Los Angeles soon. Waymo and Google are headquartered in Santa Clara County and will likely have a better relationship there.
Plus, since I started with Waymo when they were a year old, I’m happy to see that they should be offering service to my home soon.