Waymo gets approval to operate autonomous vehicle services for 24 hours and start paid trips
India Today
The autonomous cars from Waymo and Cruise will now be able to collect fares from passengers. One will also be able to share their ride with a group of people.
Alphabet’s Waymo and Cruise have received permission to begin autonomous vehicle services for passengers. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates the use of AVs in providing passenger service throughout California, has given a nod to these self-driving units, so that they can operate full day in some parts of San Francisco and San Mateo.
Interestingly, the autonomous cars from these companies will now also be able to collect fares from passengers. One will also be able to share their ride with a group of people. Previously, the firms were only allowed to provide a driverless car service to some users on a testing basis, which has changed now. But, the CPUC has asserted that companies need to include a safety driver.
“Driverless Deployment: Passenger service on a deployment basis for carriers that hold a DMV Autonomous Vehicle Deployment permit. Driverless, so no safety driver is required in the vehicle. Fare collection is permitted. Shared rides may be permitted depending on a carrier’s Passenger Safety Plan,” CPUC said in a report.
It further says that Cruise will be required to provide Drivered Deployment service on selected public roads in San Francisco between 10:00PM to 6:00AM at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. Waymo, on the other hand, is also been asked to provide Drivered Deployment service and it got the permit to operate 24 hours in designated parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour.
In response to this, Waymo asserted that thousands of riders in California are already on the waitlist after the company announced the tester program in August last year, Reuters reports. "We’ll begin offering paid trips through the program in the coming weeks," the company said. However, both companies are not allowed to operate during heavy fog or heavy rain.
A Bloomberg report suggests that California is one of the top places in the world, where autonomous vehicles are mostly tested. Last year, over 81 per cent of 1,000 AVs were reportedly operating in this state and these were either fully electric or plug-in hybrid autonomous vehicles. In 2020, the cited source says that only 63 per cent of plug-in vehicles were operating, which suggests that the use of these has increased by a big margin.
