FILE – A Waymo driverless taxi drives on the street during a test ride in San Francisco, on Feb. 15, 2023. Self-driving car pioneer Waymo announced Thursday, May 4, that its robotaxis will start to pick up more volunteers for testing the autonomous vehicles traversing the more challenging conditions in San Francisco. California has been a leader in self-driving car technologies that could dramatically improve road safety and our access to employment and social opportunities.
Waymo’s safety record is impressive at this early stage. In September, a preliminary study coauthored with the Swiss Reinsurance Company found that Waymo’s driverless robotaxis in Phoenix and San Francisco led to a 76% reduction in property damage claim frequencies relative to the human driver baseline while eliminating bodily injury claims.
Unfortunately, some of California’s political class is threatening the promise of autonomous vehicles. In January, the Department of Motor Vehicles approved expanding Waymo’s deployment permit to cover portions of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Despite this endorsement from DMV safety regulators, economic regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission inexplicably delayed what should have been a perfunctory approval.
California’s increasingly hostile regulatory and business climate has already caused several autonomous vehicle developers to move testing and planned deployments to friendlier environments in Arizona and Texas.