The expansions also appear to include San Francisco International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, suggesting that Waymo could offer curbside airport pickup and drop-off at the two major airports.
A Waymo spokesperson told The Standard that the company doesn’t have immediate plans to do so yet—but reporting from Mission Local found the company has reached out to SFO to begin the process. In Phoenix, Waymo’s vehicles are able to do overnight service (from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) to and from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said any plans for Waymo to do passenger pickup and drop off will require the additional approval of the airport.
“Seeing them operating more in our surrounding communities [is] what we’d like to see first,” Yakel told The Standard.
A Waymo spokesperson told The Standard via email that a public comment period on Waymo’s safety plan will run until Feb. 8. Following that, the California Public Utilities Commission will evaluate the request and choose to approve or deny the expansion. As soon as the expansion is approved, Waymo can begin charging for rides in other parts of the Bay Area and in Los Angeles.
But concerns are already mounting about the driverless car service’s aggressive expansion, especially as it’s positioned itself as a safety-minded company—a framing that it has doubled down on in the wake of Cruise pulling its services nationwide.
California state Sen. Dave Cortese introduced legislation that would give local governments authority to put the kibosh on robotaxis that don’t have local approval. In December, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sued the CPUC for approving Waymo and Cruise’s expansion on the basis that the approval may not have been legal, a tricky case to prove that nevertheless may raise eyebrows for Los Angeles officials.
Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon professor who studies autonomous vehicles, told The Standard that the expansion of service—both in terms of scope and speed—puts Waymo at greater risk for dangerous accidents, especially if it intends to offer more highway service.
“If you’re 25 mph or below, there’s a whole lot of extra room to make mistakes,” Koopman said. “Once you’re above about 30 or certainly at 55, the stakes are dramatically raised because fatalities are much more likely at high speeds.”
Waymo’s real-world highway testing appears to be limited. Earlier this month, Waymo announced that it would start testing its vehicles on highways around the Phoenix area. Waymo has already been operating autonomous vehicles with a human driver present on freeways around Arizona and California.
“CPUC and the public should be presented with an explicitly stated promise for safety and convenience and should be able in the future to judge whether Waymo has delivered on its promise,” Koopman said.
