[imagesource: Cruise]

We really are living in the future.

There are NFTs, home assistant robots, commercial space travel, and electric vehicles all over the show – just a few of the things that we were just imagining were possible a decade or so ago.

Add robotaxis into the mix, and we really seem on the way to that The Jetsons life.

Two of the leading autonomous vehicle companies in the US, Waymo and Cruise, have now received the green light to offer driverless rides to passengers in robotaxis in San Francisco.

Both companies received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to go ahead with this service.

To be more precise, Cruise is pretty much set to go ahead, while Waymo has the permit but will only offer rides in vehicles with safety drivers for now.

The Verge below:

Waymo was the first company to receive a driverless testing permit in 2018. And while the idea of a fully autonomous ride-hailing service is still Waymo’s “north star and ultimate service model,” according to a spokesperson, the company will only remove safety drivers from its vehicles when it’s ready to do so.

…In order to give rides to paying passengers in its fully driverless vehicles, as it does in Arizona, the Google spinoff would need to apply for an additional permit from the California Public Utilities Commission.

While Waymo is building up to offer a fully driverless experience, Cruise is hitting its milestone:

Rob Grant, senior vice president of government affairs and social impact, said the permit “brings [Cruise] one step closer to achieving our mission to make transportation safer, better, and more affordable in cities with our fleet of all-electric, self-driving and shared vehicles.”

This Cruise robotaxi looks pretty nifty and doesn’t even have an actual driver’s seat:

Image: Reuters

The permits do come with a few limits in place:

Cruise vehicles are approved to operate between 10PM and 6AM at a maximum speed of 30mph [around 50 kilometres per hour] and can even drive in “light rain and fog.”

Waymo vehicles can operate on public roads in parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties at a maximum speed of 65mph [100kph].

This permit is the next step in cementing California on the map for being “ground zero for AV testing in the US”.

The state already has more than 50 companies licensed to operate autonomous vehicles for testing purposes, with a small handful holding permits to test fully driverless vehicles, without safety drivers.

Things are set to kick off properly in 2030, as California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed a bill that would require AV companies to only use electric vehicles by that point.

[source:verge]