Waymo opens driverless car services to anyone in San Francisco
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A Waymo self-driving car in front of Google headquarters in San Francisco. Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
If you were hoping to take a spin in the self-driving Waymo cars, now's your chance. The company announced Tuesday anyone in San Francisco can now hail a ride instead of needing to be approved off a waitlist.
Why it matters: San Francisco is the second city in the U.S., after Phoenix, where the robotaxis are open to anyone.
How it works: You can request a ride on Waymo using the Waymo One app, and the process is much like using Uber or Lyft. The pricing structure is also similar — riders are charged a base fee plus time and distance traveled.
By the numbers: The Alphabet-owned company said in a press release that nearly 300,000 people had signed up on its waitlist to use the service while it was scaling operations in the city.
Catch up quick: The company received approval last August to operate its driverless cars around the city 24/7 after initially only being allowed to charge for rides with a safety driver.
- In March, it received a permit to operate on San Francisco freeways and other highways in the Bay Area. The company has been operating in San Francisco since 2009.
Reality check: The autonomous vehicle roll out here hasn't always been smooth.
- Cruise, which lost its permits to operate autonomously in the city after one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian 20 feet in October, was fined $112,500 last week by the California Public Utilities Commission for withholding information about the incident. The company is still unable to offer rides in California.
- In February, a Waymo vehicle crashed into a cyclist, resulting in minor injuries.
The big picture: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced in May that federal regulators were investigating Waymo for crashes and traffic violations, according to USA Today.
- NHTSA had received nearly two dozen reports of incidents such as collisions with stationary objects.
The other side: "We are proud of our performance and safety record over tens of millions of autonomous miles driven, as well as our demonstrated commitment to safety transparency," Waymo told the Arizona Republic.
- According to company data, Waymo cars are involved in 0.4 collisions per million miles driven compared to a rate of 2.78 for human-driven cars.
My thought bubble: I tried Waymo earlier this year in Phoenix and seeing a car turn, brake, accelerate and even use its blinker (something I fail to do) with no driver in the front seat was quite a futuristic experience.