Waymo Secures First California Permit for Driverless Public Road Testing
Waymo earns the first California permit to test fully driverless cars on public streets, marking a major milestone for autonomous vehicles. The company plans to launch these uncrewed tests in several Silicon Valley cities.
Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Alphabet, holds the first permit in California to test autonomous vehicles on public roads without a human driver inside. Unlike previous testing that requires a safety driver behind the wheel to take over in emergencies, this new permit allows the cars to operate completely empty on city streets.
This milestone arrives during a complex regulatory period in California, where lawmakers recently passed a bill allowing law enforcement to impound unpermitted driverless cars. While the state DMV holds the authority to issue these permits, questions remain about the exact legal interpretation that led to Waymo receiving this groundbreaking approval.
Despite safety concerns highlighted by past collisions involving self-driving cars and a fatal Uber crash in Arizona, Waymo already operates driverless taxis in Phoenix. The company now expands its uncrewed testing to several Silicon Valley cities, including Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale.