Waymo contradicts San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on expansion

Bay City News
·2 min read
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(BCN) — Waymo on Thursday contradicted the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, which said the autonomous driving company never meaningfully communicated its plans to expand into the county or that it had requested a permit to do so from the California Public Utilities Commission.

On Feb. 8, San Mateo County Attorney John Nibbelin sent a letter to the CPUC, asking them to reject Waymo’s Jan. 19 request for a permit to expand its autonomous commercial services into San Mateo County.

“Waymo failed to communicate in any depth or detail with County of San Mateo staff about the specifics of Waymo’s proposal to expand its operations, largely unfettered, into San Mateo County,” Nibbelin said.

Waymo announces expansion plans for service in Peninsula

A slide from Waymo’s outreach presentation to public and private stakeholders in the peninsula shows the company’s planned expansion. Feb. 15, 2024 (Waymo via BCN)<br>
A slide from Waymo’s outreach presentation to public and private stakeholders in the peninsula shows the company’s planned expansion. Feb. 15, 2024 (Waymo via BCN)

Later that day, Nibbelin sent the CPUC a follow-up email “to clarify that Waymo representatives met with three members of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and with the County Executive regarding its interest in expanding its commercial operations into San Mateo County.”

In a Thursday email, Wamyo said it has conducted outreach briefings with dozens of public and private stakeholders in the county. Their briefings included a 12-slide presentation that showed how the technology works. One slide contained a map of the peninsula.

Thursday’s email from Waymo included the slides and said “As you can see on slide 11, they showed the map of Waymo’s expansion plans in the Peninsula. While showing the map, they emphasized that before being able to provide fully autonomous public service in the Peninsula on a commercial basis, Waymo will need to update our CPUC permit.”

The controversy stems from a Tuesday resolution passed unanimously by the board of supervisors.

It was a statement in support of Senate Bill 915, introduced by Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose). The bill would require operators who have obtained approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the CPUC to conduct autonomous commercial passenger services to secure approvals from the local government before commencing.

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