• Waymo, the autonomous vehicle arm of Google, and Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit of General Motors, have gained approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to start commercial operations, charging customers for autonomous deliveries and ride-hailing. Although the two companies got approval, they cannot start ride-hailing services until they receive approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.

• As per the permit, Waymo can operate its fleets — with a safety driver — in designated areas in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, traveling at speeds up to 65 mph under several weather conditions including rain or light fog. Cruise can operate — without a safety driver— in parts of San Francisco between 10 pm–6 am, traveling at speeds below 30 mph, including in weather conditions such as light rain and light fog.

• 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.

• Cruise entered the autonomous delivery vehicle (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. 

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: The state’s DMV previously granted approval for both Waymo and Cruise to deploy autonomous cars without a safety driver in October 2018 and October 2020, respectively. Today’s approval for commercial operations comes four months after the two companies applied for it in May.   Nuro is the only other company in the ADV space to have received permission from the state’s DMV ( in December 2020 ) to conduct commercial driverless deliveries.</ul>