SF Examiner – How many Waymos are in SF? Good luck getting a straight answer
Editors note: the main point is:
“Waymo is one of the most uncooperative, non-transparent, opaque organizations I’ve ever encountered,” said recently termed-out San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, long one of the many city leaders critical of the nascent self-driving technology.
See original article by Greg Wong at the SF Examiner
It may feel like spotting a Waymo robotaxi in San Francisco is getting easier by the day. But just how many driverless white Jaguars are there in The City? Nobody seems to know or, at least, is willing to say.
What we do know precisely is that the number of Waymo autonomous-vehicles roaming California’s streets has more than tripled over the past year, according to data shared with The Examiner by the California Public Utilities Commission.
In March 2023, there were 268 “active” vehicles in the state, the regulator said. In March of last year, there were 330. As of March 11, there were 1,087 Waymo vehicles in use across the Golden State, an inflation likely due to the company’s burgeoning foothold in Los Angeles.
We also know that of those 1,087 cars in the state, 762 are “associated with a terminal in San Francisco,” CPUC spokesperson Terrie Prosper said. But, he stressed, that does not mean that’s where those cars currently are nor how many are on the road at a time.
So, exactly how many Waymo cars are driving through San Francisco right now? Waymo won’t say, nor is it required to, according to the company, local and state officials.
Alphabet-owend Waymo is only mandated to report a statewide count to the state Department of Motor Vehicles and CPUC, to the frustration of several city leaders who spoke to The Examiner both on and off the record.
“Waymo is one of the most uncooperative, non-transparent, opaque organizations I’ve ever encountered,” said recently termed-out San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, long one of the many city leaders critical of the nascent self-driving technology.
Waymo spokesperson Anjelica Price-Rocha told The Examiner the company has “over 300” vehicles “in service” in San Francisco, consistent with around the same total it has disclosed for the last 10 months.
Importantly, “in service” does not mean “on the street at the same time.” According to Price-Rocha, the “over 300” number only describes the size of its fleet. Those are the cars it can deploy to the streets, not necessarily the ones it has. Some of them could be stored in a garage, parking lot or used for testing purposes.
Price-Rocha would not say how many Waymos are actually on the street right now, nor how that number has changed.
She did reveal that due to “operational improvements over time,” the company has been incrementally increasing how many Waymos are on the roads simultaneously.
But that does at least explain why it might seem like you’re seeing more Waymos on the street; That might be true, even though the actual fleet size has stayed static.
“I’ve seen 300 just this weekend alone,” Peskin said, tongue firmly in cheek.
Still, nailing down an exact count of how many Waymo cars there are in San Francisco, whether on the roads or parked in the garage, is nearly impossible.
In addition to Waymo and the CPUC, The Examiner asked officials from the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, San Francisco International Airport, the CPUC, the DMV, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority, and three current and former legislators if they knew how many Waymos were in The City.
All of them answered some form of “no,” except for the SFMTA, which said it might be able to share a number, but couldn’t guarantee it. The Examiner asked the agency Thursday, but did not receive a specific number prior to publication Tuesday morning. This story will be updated if we hear back.
What we know about Waymo’s expansion
August 2023 is considered a landmark turning point in autonomous-vehicle’s short, but eventful lifespan in The City.
See original article by Greg Wong at the SF Examiner
