Waymo is close to getting its full autonomy approval in San Francisco as it completed the application process via California’s Public Utilities Commission on December 13, as per Teslarati.
Purpose of the application
The American autonomous driving tech company would be allowed to take passengers without requiring a human driver if its application for full autonomy gets approved. As of now, the company is only able to operate in San Francisco nonautonomously.
However, the process of getting the approval is lengthy and complex as it requires to be scrutinized by the commission. That said, many companies launched their autonomous driving technologies in other cities to avoid California‘s stringent standards.
Notably, GM‘s business unit, Cruise, was the only company to earn the approval so far after months of applying for the permit. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft introduced its autonomous technologies to Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.
Progress in FSD technology
Tesla’s Full Self Driving software is arguably Waymo’s closest rival at the moment. Tesla’s FSD supports autonomous driving across its vehicles on a much greater scale. Furthermore, the FSD technology is accessible nationwide as it consistently welcomes a growing number of users into its beta testing.
On the other hand, Waymo’s smooth handling of the regulatory procedure is a positive indicator for the technology as a whole. However, it must be noted that these technologies are far from large-scale production and commercial use.
That said, we appear to be at the beginning of a significant transition in terms of mobility. Apart from addressing the environmental issues with electric vehicles, we now have FSD technology to address other issues involving drivers.
