Waymo will soon offer fully self-driving cars to the general public in San Francisco.

Waymo is taking another step towards its fully autonomous taxi service in San Francisco. All that’s missing right now is self-deployment permission.

Waymo has taken the next step in its quest to bring fully self-driving taxis to San Francisco residents. Indeed, the company has been granted an autonomous driving permit by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which allows it to pick up passengers in a test vehicle without a driver behind the wheel. This is only the second company to join the CPUC autonomous driving program, the first being Cruise.

Waymo takes another step towards its fully autonomous taxi service in San Francisco

With this approval, Waymo is now well positioned to offer autonomous transportation throughout San Francisco, parts of Daly City, and parts of Los Altos, Laos Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale. Its vehicles can reach speeds of up to 105 km/h and can operate 24/7, but the company cannot (yet) charge passengers for these trips. Waymo told Engadget that it will begin offering free, driverless rides to the first lucky ones in the coming weeks. Namely, the company has been offering free self-driving rides to Phoenix residents since 2020.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles recently allowed Waymo to charge for its fully autonomous vehicles, but the company still needs to get authorization for autonomous deployment from the CPUC to do so. The agency gave the cruise permission to roll out last June, almost a year after it was allowed to offer free rides.

All that’s missing right now is the offline deployment permission.

Like Cruise, Waymo will most likely not be allowed to use its vehicles in heavy rain or fog when it receives permission to deploy. Robot companies still need to find ways to address the problems self-driving cars face today in bad weather if they want to be able to offer their services in more regions, more people, and in all weathers. Waymo has already taken several initiatives to drive it all, such as announcing that its car sensors can now create real-time weather maps for Phoenix and San Francisco.

SF, who’s ready to ride? ??

With driverless pilot approval from @californiapuc, Waymo One is reopening to members of the public in San Francisco. Available 24/7 – driverless: https://t.co/TenpLez0lo pic.twitter.com/DtSXXGNJpa

— Waymo (@Waymo) November 18, 2022