Waymo, the autonomous vehicle arm of Google, and Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit of General Motors, have applied to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to obtain permission to charge customers for autonomous deliveries and rides in San Francisco.

The authorities are still reviewing the applications. The state’s DMV had previously granted approval for both companies to deploy autonomous cars without a safety driver. 

Neither company has revealed a timeline for the launch of the services. Waymo is reportedly planning to operate 24/7, traveling at speeds of up to 65 mph in San Francisco and San Mateo county. Cruise plans to limit its operating hours from early morning to late evening, traveling at speeds of up to 30 mph.

So far, the autonomous delivery vehicles (ADVs) developer Nuro is the only company to have received permission from the state’s DMV (in December 2020) to charge customers for driverless deliveries. 

Cruise entered the ADV market in January 2019 through a partnership with DoorDash to test autonomous food delivery in San Francisco. In November 2020, the company also entered into a partnership with Walmart to begin autonomous grocery delivery in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

Waymo entered into the autonomous commercial delivery space via an expanded partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in July 2020. The partnership includes FCA supplying Ram Promaster vans to Waymo, which would be modified into level 4 autonomous vehicles (i.e., fully autonomous vehicles limited to specific locations or conditions) used for commercial delivery purposes.