Cruise and Waymo close in on fully autonomous robotaxi service in San Francisco
Michael Vi
General Motors' (NYSE:GM) Cruise and Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo are closer to landing final approval for 24/7 fully autonomous robotaxi rides for paying customers throughout the city of San Francisco.
New robotaxi rules were set in two draft resolutions published by the California Public Utilities Commission, including an extension of the hours of operation and service areas of the autonomous car services, according to TechCrunch.
Amid public calls against the robotaxi concept, a hearing has been set for June 29 to discuss the matter. City agencies have pointed to some disruptive incidents involving Cruise vehicles that have malfunctioned or even stopped in the middle of intersections. Those reports have led to an investigation into Cruise by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. For its part, San Francisco officials are asking CPUC to move slowly with the robotaxi rollout by setting up workshops, collecting more data, and set some restrictions with robotaxi deployment downtown.
Cruiseâs current permits allow it to offer a fared passenger service in limited areas of San Francisco from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. without a safety driver present. Meanwhile, Waymo's paid service still has a human safety driver present and the company's fully autonomous with no safety driver is still free.
In terms of its fleet, Cruise currently has 300 self-driving vehicles in service, with GM (GM) shelling out around $2B a year to grow its autonomous subsidiary (as part of CEO Mary Barra's plan to double the automakerâs revenue by 2030).
Edited to clarify when Cruise's passenger service runs
More on robotaxi services:

Tesla Robotaxi? Unlikely To Happen
GM self-driving subsidiary expands robotaxi service in Texas
Amazon completes robotaxi test with passengers on public roads