Waymo was authorized to map roads at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) via a temporary license – The first step in the ALPHABET company to unlock a potentially lucrative use case for its robotaxis.
The temporary license, announced Monday evening by the mayor of San Francisco, Daniel Lurie, began on March 14.
Waymo vehicles will not work independently at the airport. Employees will manually lead vehicles to map the area. However, the permit indicates the start of a progressive approach to Waymo finally operating there commercially.
“This mapping permit is an important step towards setting up the Waymo service to millions of people who go to the city each year and from the city,” according to a statement from Nicole Gavel, head of commercial development and strategic partnerships at Waymo. “Many of these travelers have placed SFO at the top of their list of service extension wishes.”
The permit marks a turnaround for Waymo, which failed to guarantee a permit in 2023 to map SFO. It is also delivered with certain attached channels, including data sharing, depending on the language in the agreement seen by Techcrunch. This language will probably be included in future agreements with the City and the San Francisco airport commission while Waymo pushes a progressive approach that begins with cartography, followed by autonomous tests with a human security operator, driverless tests and possibly commercial operations.
Waymo must provide specific data after each vehicle mapping session, according to the agreement that Techcrunch has seen. This “data interface agreement” requires Waymo to follow its vehicles when they enter and leave the airport and provide time, geographic location, identification, travel identifier, transaction type, the unique identifier based on the driver and the vehicle license plate number, according to the agreement.
The agreement also prohibits Waymo from using autonomous vehicles to move commercial products. Waymo closed its program of autonomous trucks in 2023And the company has since redoubled its efforts for the shuttle – not packages. However, the language protects against future applications of commercial delivery, which has raised concerns among the The international team brotherhood.
The restriction was sufficient to obtain the blessing of Peter Finn, vice-president of the Western Teammsters region.
“We would like to thank the mayor Lurie for his leadership in the gathering of the parties and the director SFO Mike Nakornkhet for having created a model for the responsible implementation of new technologies which take into account the impact on security, jobs and the community,” said Finn in a statement.
Waymo has increased efforts Over a year ago To access the microphones and departures to SFO, according to the emails consulted and reported by Techcrunch at the time.
The approval process is long and requires separate approval from the San Francisco airport commission. Technically, permits can be issued at the discretion of the airport, said last year to the spokesperson for SFO Doug Yakel.
However, it should reflect the process that SFO managers crossed when Uber and Lyft asked for the first time more than ten years ago. For the moment, Waymo has a temporary access agreement to map the roads of SFO airport. Waymo will finally need a land transport permit to operate in SFO, which has not yet been approved.
