Waymo expands robotaxi service beyond San Francisco to Daly City, Colma
Less than two months after expanding its service to most of San Francisco, robotaxi company Waymo announced that their fleet of autonomous vehicles are now serving some communities on the Peninsula.
In a statement Tuesday, the company said their robotaxis are now available to customers in Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma. Waymo said their service now covers 55 square miles in San Francisco and San Mateo County, from Fisherman's Wharf to the Serramonte Center mall, along with connecting to the Daly City and Colma BART stations.
Along with expanding beyond San Francisco to the Peninsula, Waymo announced expanded service in Los Angeles County, covering areas including Hollywood, Westwood and Marina del Rey.
"Our team is laser focused on refining Waymo One to be as seamless and useful as possible for our riders," said Saswat Panigrahi, the company's chief product officer. "This means offering exceptional ride quality, short wait times, and more exciting destinations. We're committed to California, where many of our team members call home, so it's really special to be able to bring the benefits of full autonomy to even more people in San Francisco and Los Angeles."
Waymo's announcement was met with criticism by San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Vice President David Canepa, whose district covers Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma. In a statement, Canepa said the company gave local officials little notice about the expansion.
"When Waymo only gives our police and fire chiefs a single day to comprehend how to deal with robot cars navigating your streets there's a problem," Canepa said. "This is a pattern of behavior by a company that does not want to engage cities or counties on our very serious public safety concerns. Little notification, little transparency and little outreach has been Waymo's strategy from the start as we've seen the chaos its robotaxis have caused in San Francisco and Phoenix."
In an interview with CBS News Bay Area, Canepa said he's not so sure about the safety of any self-driving car yet.
"I'm not convinced when it comes to this autonomous vehicle technology that it's foolproof," said Canepa. "They haven't shared with us the data."
He said he wasn't notified by Waymo about the launch until nearly 5 p.m. on Monday, and they only reached out to one police department.
"The best thing they could have done was to work with those police departments, work with those fire departments and figure out if there was an emergency or if there was a situation, they should have been training them," said Canepa.
Earlier this year, the California Public Utilities Commission granted Waymo permission to expand into San Mateo County, a decision that was criticized by county officials.
For their part, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors backed Senate Bill 915 by State Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), a measure that would let local governments regulate autonomous vehicles. After pulling the measure from this year's legislative session, Cortese plans to reintroduce the bill next year.
"There's something fundamentally wrong with the process," said Canepa.
On June 25, Waymo became available to all in San Francisco who downloaded the company's app. Previously, robotaxis were only available to those on a waiting list, which had grown to 300,000 people.
