Waymo will start testing its robo-taxis on Phoenix freeways, adding to the company’s already large reach in Arizona while California lawmakers and labor organizations demand new regulations for self-driving vehicles.
Expanding driverless rides to freeways comes after years of testing on California and Arizona public roads, according to an announcement Waymo made Monday. Autonomous rides on the freeway will be available to company employees only as part of the initial testing process.
“The ability to utilize freeways will be especially important as we scale our operations to other cities. For this reason, we are laser focused on our freeway ride hailing testing,” Waymo said in a blog post.
Waymo operates in 225 square miles in metro Phoenix, but using freeways can speed up trips by 50% compared to using city streets, the company said.
Waymo’s expansion of its driverless operations in Arizona comes amid heavy pushback from California officials as robo-taxi usage rises. Last week, Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting said he began the process of introducing legislation that would allow San Francisco police to ticket autonomous vehicles and require accident reports to be shared concurrent with the incident. The legislation follows a report from NBC Bay Area that found San Francisco police can only issue a citation if a safety driver overseeing operations is inside the autonomous vehicle.
San Francisco approved an expansion of Waymo and Cruise last year, companies that already had more than 500 operating robo-taxis in the city. Cruise, the self-driving arm of General Motors, halted its fleet in late October when the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked its permit after a self-driving vehicle struck a pedestrian.
Joining the fight to keep robotaxis off the street is the Teamsters Union, representing drivers and other workers. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) vetoed a Teamsters-backed bill that would have banned self-driving trucks, causing a rift between California’s top Democrat and the prominent labor union.
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But Teamsters has not abandoned the issue, now working with Sacramento leaders in backing a bill aimed at implementing local ordinances before robo-taxis can carry out services. The proposal, according to Politico, would pose a threat to autonomous vehicle companies ramping up their lobbying in Sacramento.
“The Teamsters are not going away on this issue,” Peter Finn, vice president of the Teamsters’ western region, told the outlet. “We cannot outsource the decision on how autonomous vehicle technology is being rolled out to big corporations that have their own specific interest, which is profit.”
