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Waymo has been given permission to map roadways at the San Francisco International Airport ( SFO ) via a temporary permit — the first step in the Alphabet companionship ’s bid to unlock a potentially lucrative consumption case for its robotaxis .
The temporary permit , which was announced Monday eventide by San Francisco city manager Daniel Lurie , kick off March 14 .
Waymo vehicles will not operate autonomously in the airport . Employees will manually drive the vehicle to map out the surface area . However , the license signals the commencement of a phased approach to Waymo eventually operating commercially there .
“ This mapping permit is an important step toward bringing the Waymo service to the zillion of people who journey to and from the urban center each yr , ” say Nicole Gavel , head of job maturation and strategical partnership at Waymo , in a instruction . “ Many of those traveller have placed SFO at the top of their avail expansion wish tilt . ”
The license marks a turnaround for Waymo , whichfailed to secure a permitin 2023 to represent SFO . It also comes with some string attached , including data sharing , according to spoken language in the concord look at by TechCrunch . This language will belike be included in future agreements with the city and San Francisco Airport Commission as Waymo campaign a phased approach that start up with map , followed by autonomous examination with a human safety operator , driverless examination , and finally commercial-grade operations .
Waymo has to provide specific datum after each mapping academic session per fomite , grant to the agreement that TechCrunch take in . This “ datum interface agreement ” requires Waymo to track its vehicle as they get into and exit the drome and supply the time , geographic positioning , recognition , misstep identifier , dealings case , driver - based unique identifier , and vehicle license crustal plate number , according to the agreement .
The concord also prohibits Waymo from using autonomous vehicle to move commercial-grade goods . Waymoshuttered its self - driving trucks program in 2023 , and the company has since redoubled its efforts to shuttle people — not software system . However , the language protects against next applications of commercial delivery , which has raised business concern among theInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters .
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The restriction was sufficient to get the blessing of Peter Finn , Teamsters Western Region vice president .
“ We would like to give thanks Mayor Lurie for his leadership in bring the parties together and SFO Director Mike Nakornkhet for create a templet for the responsible implementation of new engineering that takes into account the impact on safety , jobs , and the community of interests , ” Finn say in a instruction .
Waymo storm up effortsmore than a class agoto gain access to pickups and drop - offs at SFO , according to emails viewed and report by TechCrunch at the time .
The approval process is lengthy and requires a separate favorable reception from the San Francisco Airport Commission . Technically , permits can be come forth at the drome ’s discretion , SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel told TechCrunch last twelvemonth . However , it is bear to mirror the process SFO officials went through when Uber and Lyft first sought access more than a decade ago . For now , Waymo has a irregular entree agreement to map SFO airport roadways . Waymo will eventually call for a ground DoT permit to operate at SFO , which has yet to be approved .
