Where Are the Robotaxis? Self-Driving Vehicles Are Downshifting

• It seems self-driving vehicles are downshifting, based on regulatory response to accidents, people vandalizing robotaxis in California, and research finding low consumer confidence in the technology.

• Perhaps San Francisco—a city with decent public transportation and a growing biking community—was not the best place for Waymo and Cruise to experiment?

• “The assumption that highway Level 4 is easier than urban Level 4 is common, but we’ve learned that’s mistaken. Higher speeds bring unique challenges,” says John Krafcik, the former Waymo CEO.
  

In San Francisco’s Chinatown last month, a crowd celebrating the Lunar New Year surrounded an empty Waymo Jaguar, broke its windows and threw fireworks inside, The San Francisco Standard reports.

There were no injuries from the incident, according to Waymo. A few days earlier in the city, according to the San Francisco Examiner, a Waymo robotaxi hit a cyclist, causing minor injuries and no hospitalization.

The Lunar New Year torching got very little media attention outside the city. General Motors’ Cruise already had pulled its operations out of San Francisco following a serious injury to a pedestrian, just weeks after the California Public Utilities Commission gave both Waymo and Cruise permission to charge robotaxi fares 24/7 in the city in the face of protests by cyclists and other locals opposed to the geofenced autonomous cabs.

In a guest editorial in the Standard, Mayor London Breed described the robotaxi’s torching as an act of vandalism, “not a political act.”

But a video posted to social media revealed a crowd of about a dozen people surrounding the Waymo Jaguar and scribbling graffiti on its doors, the front-left fender and the hood. “One man bashed the front passenger window and windshield with a skateboard,” the Standard’s story said, “shattering the glass.”

This month, San Francisco police arrested a man in connection with two Tesla fires and said he was not a suspect in the Waymo torching, “as the department initially said,” according to the Standard.

Perhaps San Francisco—a city with decent public transportation and a biking community growing bigger as e-bikes became a popular way to handle its steep hills—was not the best place for Waymo and Cruise to experiment?

“I suppose it’s a good sign in this environment that one has to be reminded that Waymo, and AV tech in general, didn’t exactly launch in San Francisco,” John Krafcik, who was Waymo’s CEO from 2015 to 2021, told Autoweek via email.

“Waymo launched its AV ride-hailing service in Metro Phoenix, in fall 2020, in an area larger than San Francisco, in a safe, drama-free fashion two years before it launched in San Francisco.”

Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst for Guidehouse Insights, added: “Generally, I think Waymo has done a better job working with officials, collaborating with cities.”

The CPUC in February was about to expand the parts of California where Waymo would be allowed to run commercial operations, adding San Mateo County, which would make the Jaguar robotaxis potential airport shuttles between the city and San Francisco International, as well as in Los Angeles County.

But the CPUC notified the company it was suspending its request to expand commercial operations for “further staff review,” according to the Examiner. The CPUC’s deadline for approving or denying Waymo’s request is now pushed back to June 19.

Autonomous-vehicle development was for a long time on the same upward trajectory as electric vehicles, but now the two technologies seem to be suffering hiccups on their own, individually.