Waymo’s self-driving cars have been awarded a permit to carry passengers in California.
The state’s Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday gave permission for the unit of Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +1.15% GOOG, +1.21% to take part in California’s Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service pilot program, though it may not charge riders and an operator must be behind the wheel.
Waymo is the fourth autonomous-vehicle company to participate in the program, along with Zoox Inc., Autox Technologies Inc. and Pony.ai Inc. The permit is good for three years, and is separate from one allowing companies to test self-driving cars in the state — about 60 companies have won Department of Motor Vehicles approval for that.
Waymo was also granted an exemption from the state which will allow it to use third-party safety drivers behind the wheel. “Operating and scaling a meaningful pilot requires a large group of drivers who are more efficiently engaged through Waymo’s experienced and specialized third-party staffing providers,” Waymo said in an exemption-request letter dated Feb. 15. The company said the third-party drivers will have to pass all the same training programs and be subject to the same safety requirements that Waymo’s drivers do.
That could open the door to Waymo eventually offering an autonomous taxi service similar to the one it operates in the Phoenix, Ariz., area. In December, Waymo One — a commercial self-driving service — was launched there, offering rides to more than 400 volunteer testers. And in May, Waymo said it would offer self-driving rides in the Phoenix area in partnership with Lyft Inc. LYFT, -2.66% , in which Waymo would deploy 10 autonomous vehicles over the coming months that would be available through the Lyft app, with drivers behind the wheel.
A Waymo spokesperson said Tuesday there was no timetable for rolling out a self-driving taxi-like service in California and that for now, the service will be limited to Waymo employees and their guests around Silicon Valley.
“This is the next step on our path to eventually expand and offer more Californians opportunities to access our self-driving technology, just as we have gradually done with Waymo One in Metro Phoenix,” the Waymo spokesperson said.
Waymo autonomous cars drove about 1.3 million miles on public roads in California in 2018, according to the DMV, tops among self-driving car companies. Analysts at Jefferies and ISI Evercore, who crunched the DMV numbers, calculated in February that Waymo’s cars drove an average of 11,000 miles in California before a disengagement, meaning instances when the safety driver had to take over. That was significantly better than the rate for competitors such as General Motors Co.’s GM, -1.06% Chevy Cruise and Zoox, though the analysts noted those companies tested on busier city streets.
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