San Francisco presses CPUC to halt Waymo, Cruise robotaxi expansions
California regulators gave Waymo and Cruise the OK last week to scale up their robotaxi services in San Francisco, but now it seems the city itself won’t have it.
On Wednesday, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed motions with the California Public Utilities Commission to pause the firms’ plans to charge for robotaxi rides in the city at all hours. The San Francisco Chronicle first reported the news.
The arguments mirror many of the concerns brought to the CPUC by residents and city agencies; in a marathon hearing last Thursday, many residents insisted that robotaxis in their current form were too obstructive and unsafe to share roads with cyclists, human drivers and emergency responders.
In the days since the CPUC’s green light, at least 10 driverless cars have reportedly stalled and blocked traffic, and one even drove right into wet concrete. TechCrunch has reached out to both companies for comment on the City Attorney’s motions.
City Attorney Chiu’s letter states, “San Francisco will suffer serious harms from this expansion of driverless AV operations that will outweigh any potential harms from a minimal delay in commercial deployment Cruise may experience.”
The letter goes on to argue that the CPUC “failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act” when it green-lit the robotaxi expansions.
The story is developing — refresh for updates.