Waymo may soon expand its autonomous taxi service outside of Arizona after applying for a permit to begin charging for rides in San Francisco, California. General Motors’ Cruise has also applied for a permit.
According to documents seen by Reuters, Waymo plans to initially use safety drivers, while Cruise intends to have no humans behind the wheel. Neither application showed when they plan to launch these services.
Waymo’s permit application was filed January 19, 2021, and Cruise filed theirs on March 29, 2021. Neither application has been reviewed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
In February Waymo announced it was expanding its autonomous testing to San Francisco. Since then a number of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles have been spotted in the Bay Area outfitted with LiDAR equipment and sensors. The company had to make adjustments to their equipment in order to deal with the unique topography of the Bay Area.
Source: Reuters
