The California DMV gave General Motor’s Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo the permit to offers rides to passengers in their Robotaxi services.
The Department of Motor Vehicles offered Cruise a ‘driverless deployment permit’, which essentially means that they can receive compensation for services provides without a safety operator in the front seat. In simple terms, Cruise received the green light to start charging autonomous services offered to the public on their self-driving taxi services.
Alphabet’s Waymo received a ‘driverless deployment permit’ that also enables the operator to charge money while operating an AV, but with a driver present in the front seat. To offer rides to paying passengers in their completely driverless vehicles, just like they do in Arizona, Alphabet needs to apply for an additional permit from the California Public Utilities Commission.
Under the newly received permission, Cruise vehicles can ride on public roads in pre-designated parts of San Francisco between 10 pm and 6 am, including under weather conditions of light rain or fog. However, they cannot exceed the speed limit of 30 miles per hour. Waymo on the other hand can operate their cars in some parts of San Mateo and San Francisco counties at or below 65 mph, in rain or light fog.
Cruise and Waymo aren’t the only ones commercializing autonomous vehicles on the roads in California. In December 2020, Nuro, an autonomous delivery startup became the first company to receive a green light from the California DMV to begin a commercial driverless auto service on the public roads. However, that was for the delivery of goods, and not for passenger rides.
Both Waymo and Cruise declined to comment on when they are planning to launch a commercial service in the Bay Area, or even on their plans to begin a delivery service using autonomous vehicles.
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