Waymo, the self-driving tech development unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet, received permission from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)  to offer fully autonomous robotaxi services (i.e. without a safety driver) to the general public in selected cities in California. The service will be offered as a pilot test, free of charge to riders.

Upon receiving approval, the company announced plans to start offering driverless rides to customers in San Francisco in the coming weeks.

As per the permit, Waymo is now allowed to offer driverless robotaxi services throughout San Francisco, and portions of Daly City, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale. Its robotaxis are allowed to operate on public roads  24/7 at a maximum speed of up to 65 mph.

Waymo already holds a driver-ed commercial deployment permit for operations within San Francisco and portions of Daly City. It also holds a driver's ed test permit to publicly operate robotaxi in several other cities in California, without charging customers.

Analyst QuickTake: Waymo started driverless robotaxi service testing in San Francisco with its employees in March 2022, after offering rides with a safety driver since late 2021. With today’s permit, the company will be able to extend its robotaxi service in San Francisco to the general public and move a step closer to obtaining the commercial deployment permit. General Motors’ autonomous tech unit Cruise, the only other company to hold the permit, also operates a fleet of robotaxis in San Francisco.