Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo has applied for a permit to test its robotaxis in New York City, underscoring its intent to operate in one of the largest ride-hailing markets in the US despite an absence of local regulations supporting commercially operated autonomous vehicles.
The company has applied for a permit with the city’s Department of Transportation to operate its vehicles autonomously in Manhattan with a trained human specialist supervising behind the wheel, spokesperson Ethan Teicher said in a statement Wednesday. Shares in rival ride-hailing providers Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc. slid on the news.
Regardless of the permit outcome, Waymo plans to have a human driver manually operate its cars in New York to collect data and evaluate its technology starting next month, he said, similar to a mapping project it carried out in the city in 2021.
Waymo currently offers fully autonomous, paid rides in Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix and San Francisco, plus other parts of that region. It will also offer those trips through Uber’s platform in Atlanta later this summer, with Miami and Washington to come next year.
But Waymo won’t be launching a comparable commercial service in New York soon, due to a prohibitive regulatory environment. The city identifies itself as “some of the most challenging urban street environments for an AV to navigate,” according to the Department of Transportation’s permitting website, and does not currently offer a permit for fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing services. New York state law doesn’t allow for such services either.
The city’s stringent regulations also extend to human-operated taxi and rideshare services. Companies like Uber and Lyft have persistently sparred with a strong union of taxi medallion owners and drivers, and they’ve challenged regulations like for-hire vehicle caps and minimum wage requirements for drivers.
Waymo is seeking regulatory changes in New York, particularly the ability under state law to operate a vehicle with no human behind the wheel.
“We’re hopeful New York can enact regulatory changes that would allow us to bring our service to the city and state in the future, and we continue to have positive conversations with local and state elected officials, regulators and community organizations,” the spokesperson said.
The news sent shares of rival Uber down as much as 2.9%, while Lyft fell as much as 3.8%. Alphabet’s stock was little changed.
Alphabet has been rapidly expanding Waymo, with its commercial fleet of more than 1,500 vehicles now offering more than 250,000 paid passenger trips each week, five times the volume it offered a year ago. The unit is part of the company’s “other bets” division, a collection of futuristic businesses that generated $450 million in first-quarter revenue.
Other Cities
Waymo has been adding to the list of markets where its vehicles gather extensive road data to train its autonomous technology. Most recently, it announced it’s conducting mapping and testing in Nashville, Boston, Houston and Orlando. Testing in New York could allow it to better assess its technology in the Northeast’s cooler climate.
Other autonomous vehicle companies have also been expanding testing and capacity to prepare for large-scale commercial services in the US. Amazon.com Inc.-owned Zoox said Wednesday that it is opening its first serial production facility in the US for its purpose-built vehicles. The facility is expected to assemble more than 10,000 robotaxis a year, supporting planned launches in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Austin and Miami in the coming few years.
Tesla Inc. has been similarly testing its self-driving vehicles in Austin, with Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk setting a tentative launch date of June 22 for its long-touted robotaxi service.
Top Photo: A Waymo autonomous taxi in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday Aug. 10, 2023. California regulators are poised to decide whether two rival robotaxi services can provide around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco, despite escalating fears about recurring incidents that have caused the driverless vehicles to block traffic or imperil public safety, reported the AP.
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