Industry leader Waymo now has no drivers behind the wheel in San Francisco.
Waymo keeps moving forward. There are new ones vehicles and you expands. San Francisco now operates without on-board staff.
Up until now, Waymo vehicles always had to have people behind the wheel in order to intervene in an emergency. Of course, this only applied to public roads. Now granted the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) the company permission to drive on public roads without these crew members.
But the permit comes with a ban on charging fees. This is only permitted for journeys with on-board personnel. Waymo already has this permission from the California vehicle authority DMV, but it still needs permission from the CPUC.
Also Cruise, the start-up that works for General Motors works has this permission. The start-up has recently been allowed to hold day trips.