Autonomous Taxi Era Begins In California, Driverless Ridehail Service Allowed To Operate

Driverless Autonomous Taxis are now permitted to operate in the US. (photo: twitter @waymo)

JAKARTA - The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Monday, February 28, issued a permit for General Motors and Alphabet Inc's self-driving units to allow passenger service in autonomous vehicles but with a safety driver present.

The CPUC said GM, Cruise, and Alphabet's Waymo units would operate under a Driver license authorized to collect fares from passengers and possibly offer shared rides.

Before the announcement, Cruise and Waymo had been allowed to provide passenger service on a test basis only without being allowed to collect fares from passengers.

Starting Monday, Cruise is allowed to provide a "Drivered Deployment" service on some public roads in San Francisco between 10 p.m. and 06:00 at speeds up to 30 miles per hour (45 km/h).

This weekend I rode in a completely autonomous @Waymo which now means the coolest car experience I’ve ever had was in a minivan pic.twitter.com/GaRkO2nAIR

— Danielle Cassagnol (@dcassagnol) February 23, 2022

While Waymo can offer service in parts of the San Francisco and San Mateo areas at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour (105 km/h), CPUC said. But they also forbid companies to operate vehicles during heavy fog or heavy rain.

Earlier this month, GM and Cruise petitioned US regulators for permission to deploy several self-driving vehicles without human controls such as a steering wheel or brake pedal.

Waymo on Monday said it would use what it had learned to operate an autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in Arizona and apply it "to our growing service in San Francisco."

Waymo says it has tens of thousands of motorists waiting in California after launching a testing program in August. "We will start offering paid travel through this program in the coming weeks," the company said, as quoted by Reuters.

Prashanthi Raman, Cruise's vice president of global governance affairs, said in a statement that the announcement was "another positive step forward. Our mission has always been to launch a driverless commercial Ridehail service here in San Francisco, and that is what we will continue to work on."

Cruise has not yet received a response from the CPUC to its request for permission to deploy a Ridehail vehicle, without a driver.