Waymo and Cruise Pursue Paid Driverless Ride Permits in California
Rival autonomous vehicle companies Waymo and Cruise seek state permits to charge passengers for driverless rides in San Francisco. Cruise currently holds a slight lead after gaining authorization for a driverless pilot program.
Waymo and Cruise seek permits from the California DMV to charge passengers for driverless rideshare services in the San Francisco area. Both companies submit applications earlier in the year, and the state currently reviews these requests without providing a specific timeline for a decision. This move represents a major step toward making autonomous ride-hailing a commercial reality in a major US city.
Cruise currently holds a slight advantage in the regulatory race by becoming the first company to enter the CPUC’s Driverless Pilot program. This authorization allows passengers to ride in Cruise test vehicles without a human driver present, although the company cannot yet charge for these specific trips. However, Cruise still waits for its official driverless deployment permit from the DMV before it can launch a paid service.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, already offers paid driverless rides in Chandler, Arizona, but navigates a different regulatory path in California. While Waymo possesses a CPUC permit, it currently only has authorization for driving permits rather than fully driverless operations like Cruise. Both companies continue to log thousands of autonomous miles in San Francisco as they work to prove the safety and reliability of their self-driving technology.