Get ready, San Francisco: The state government on Thursday approved a major expansion of driverless robotaxi service across the city.
And get ready, Los Angeles: The industry plans to push driverless travel here as soon as it gets permits to do so.
The state's green light, following a 3-1 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission, signals a historic turning point for the robotaxi business as it evolves from an exciting experiment to a commercial reality. It also marks the beginning of a grand experiment in public safety in which thousands of multi-ton vehicles operated by artificial intelligence attempt to safely negotiate the hills and narrow streets of San Francisco.
It highlights California's confusing multi-agency regulation of new automotive technology: Two agencies are in charge of the robotaxi business, the CPUC and the California Department of Motor Vehicles. And it highlights the influence of Silicon Valley on California government.
While the approval delights the industry and advocates of rapid technological innovation and economic growth, it has sparked anxiety among auto safety advocates and local public officials, who have little regulatory power over vehicles.
San Francisco robotaxis have become famous for “blocking” (or stopping dead) traffic, blocking lanes for emergency vehicles, preventing fire trucks from leaving stations, stopping at fire hoses, and driving straight into emergency scenes where police and fire department lights are off. blinking, instead of going in another direction.
“They're not ready for prime time,” San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson recently told the Times.
The Fire Department released reports of 55 such incidents over the past year and a half, most of them occurring in just the last few months.
The CPUC, which approved the measure, regulates ride-for-hire. The CPUC also regulates the transportation services Uber and Lyft. Both companies plan to eventually replace their human drivers with robot cars.
The approval allows robotaxi companies Waymo and Cruise to collect fares and expand their operations to all parts of the city, 24 hours a day. Each has deployed several hundred vehicles in the first phase of commercial launch. With the expansion, it will grow to thousands of vehicles, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said recently on an earnings call.
The only dissenting vote was cast by Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma, who said the commission should not allow rapid expansion before Waymo and Cruise must explain why their vehicles continue to interfere with emergency services and what they are going to do about it. . “The commission currently lacks sufficient information … to assess the security aspect of this,” she said. “It is premature to pass these resolutions today.”
Voting in favor were commissioners John Reynolds and Darcie Houck, and commission chairwoman Alice Reynolds. Commissioner Karen Douglas was absent. The five commissioners were appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
John Reynolds, who came to the CPUC after serving as chief counsel at Cruise, said safety is the DMV's concern. He called the Fire Department's dozens of incidents “analysis of anecdotal data that lacks sufficient rigor.” He added that previous implementing rules approved by the CPUC are set in stone and cannot be changed without a lengthy rulemaking process.
Although Reynolds abstained from voting on those rules, he helped Cruise advise the CPUC in the initial stage of creating the rules. Reynolds said before his vote that his professional role has now changed to “consumer advocate.”
Shiroma disagreed, describing the emergency services data as “anecdotal” and asking how those pushing for an immediate vote would feel if “a member of their family was trapped in a burning building.”
He made clear he was not opposed to robotaxi deployment, but said more time was needed for the industry to explain why its software is getting confused at emergency scenes and how it will be fixed. “Given their financial backing,” it's reasonable to ask Cruise and Waymo to take the time to get things right before a major expansion.
The self-driving car industry has a reputation as a bunch of scrappy startups, but all the key companies are owned by deep-pocketed corporations. Cruise, from General Motors; Google's Alphabet's Waymo; Motional, from Hyundai; and Zoox, from Amazon.
City officials fought hard to delay an expansion until companies could figure out how to program their vehicles to avoid interference with first responders. They won a two-month reprieve, but on Thursday the CPUC made its decision. Meanwhile, opponents managed to get recognition that their concerns are real.
In its lengthy resolution, the official document approving the expansion, the commission said it “recognizes the ongoing and emerging challenges related to public and passenger safety.” He said, “We remain concerned about the potential risks, known and unknown, to public and passenger safety from driverless vehicles.” [automated vehicles] scale up.”
No concrete plans were mentioned to address these issues. The commission said it will “engage with stakeholders” and that “we see the need for continued development in our approach to audiovisual regulation and policy.”
The resolution also addressed city officials' concerns about the lack of local control over safety and traffic flow not only in San Francisco but also in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. The commission noted that cities can issue traffic tickets.
The CPUC did signal its intention to review the California government's spotty rules around safety data collection and address the driverless industry's propensity to keep statistics out of public view, sometimes with the help of the state regulators themselves. In 2021, after the DMV received a public records request for Waymo crash data, the agency invited the company to seek an injunction to prevent the DMV from releasing full crash reports.
After the injunction was granted, the DMV and Waymo reached an agreement to keep basic crash information hidden on the grounds of protecting the company's trade secrets. California Lawyer. Gen. Rob Bonta helped the DMV and Waymo craft the agreement, which was approved by a state court.
The robotaxi expansion was supported by state and local chambers of commerce, trade associations, disability advocates, and California Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), who represents Silicon Valley. A large number of people spoke for or against the measure before the CPUC vote. Several blind people testified in favor. Several others in wheelchairs objected, pointing out that current robotaxis cannot accommodate them and that human taxi drivers can help them get in and out of their vehicles.
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