Waymo wins California OK for driverless robotaxis in 18 counties
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- CPUC approved Waymo's Advice Letter No. 4 clearing driverless, paid robotaxi service in 18 counties — 12 in Northern California (including the full Bay Area, Sacramento, and Napa) and 6 in Southern California (including Los Angeles and San Diego)
- Waymo won broad operating conditions covering all speed limits, freeways, highways, city streets, rural roads, parking lots, driveways, and rail crossings, day and night, in rain, fog, and hail — with widespread snow or ice as the only carve-out
- Waymo filed its Advice Letter on January 28 and sat through a suspension through September 25 plus a May supplemental filing on unaccompanied minors and outage procedures, roughly seven months of regulatory review before approval
- Waymo's service area already spans more than 1,400 square miles across 11 cities on roughly 3,000 vehicles with over 20 million completed trips, and the company is targeting 1 million rides per week by year-end
- Tesla's Bay Area "Robotaxi" still operates with a human in the driver's seat under a charter-party carrier permit — the same permit a limousine company holds — which CPUC deputy executive director Pat Tsen said in March does not constitute an autonomous vehicle service
- Waymo is sitting on nearly 1,000 sixth-generation Ojai robotaxis in Arizona that could feed a rapid rollout once depots, mapping, and remote support are in place
- Electrek frames the approval as the "boring version of winning," noting Waymo moved methodically through review rather than rushing to keep pace with Tesla's expansion narrative
Why it matters: Waymo now holds the only California approval to charge for fully driverless rides across most of the state's population, while Tesla's robotaxi brand runs on a limo-class permit with a safety driver — a regulatory gap that lets Waymo set the pace on commercial autonomous service in the country's largest AV market.
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