Waymo and Cruise fall under the umbrella of Google and General Motors, respectively, and each has continued to grow rapidly. GM expects Cruise to hit $1 billion in revenue by 2025, while Waymo expanded to Phoenix last year and also started testing cars in Los Angeles. Waymo also announced it would be going greener, replacing its fleet of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrids with Jaguar I-Pace EVs.
“Today’s permit marks the true beginning of our commercial operations in San Francisco,” said Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo. “We’re incredibly grateful for this vote of confidence from the CPUC and to the communities and riders who have supported our service.”
San Francisco remains the primary test city for autonomous taxis. However, Akshay Singh, an automotive industries principal at PwC, said, “If one city demonstrates that it’s actually safe to deploy robotaxis and safe to operate robotaxis, then it gives confidence to other cities.”