A Waymo self-driving car in San Francisco. Shutterstock/Iv-olga

Apparently there is a market for this service in San Francisco, according to Jeremy Hsu at New Scientist, in spite of the objections:

California approves driverless taxi expansion in San Francisco

Waymo and Cruise can now charge for ride-hailing services throughout San Francisco despite objections that driverless cars interfere with traffic and first responders

Driverless cars have the green light to operate as paid ride-hailing services in San Francisco after the companies Waymo and Cruise won approval from California state regulators. But the decision comes amidst pushback from city officials and residents over the cars creating traffic jams and interfering with the work of firefighters and police officers.

The roll-out of driverless cars in San Francisco has had a bumpy start. Viral videos have shown them creating traffic problems or ignoring firefighter and police commands during emergencies, while local activists have halted them by placing traffic safety cones on their bonnets (hoods) to trick vehicle sensors.

“Regardless of how the vote comes out, the companies have lost a huge amount of credibility,” says Missy Cummings at George Mason University in Virginia. “They’ve lost a huge amount of what otherwise was public favour when they first started driving five years ago.”

On 10 August, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) heard more than five hours of public comments before approving the driverless car companies’ requests in a 3 to 1 decision. Waymo and Cruise can now expand their commercial services to charge passengers for round-the-clock driverless robotaxis in San Francisco – although the companies have suggested that they would not immediately add swarms of additional driverless cars…

Read the whole story here.