CPUC Clears Waymo for Paid Rides in 18 Counties

California Cleared Waymo to Charge for Driverless Rides in 18 Counties

The CPUC approved the expansion effective the same day, opening Sacramento and San Diego. It is a permission, not a launch — and the fleet size appears nowhere.

Aug 16, 2026Source: Electrek

The CPUC's Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division approved Waymo Advice Letters 0004 and 0004-A on 14 August, accepting the company's updated Passenger Safety Plan for an expanded operational design domain and its new Ojai vehicle platform.

What the letter says

In its own words, CPED "authorizes expansion of Waymo's Driverless Deployment service as requested", and Waymo "may begin fared driverless passenger service operations in the specified areas and with the Ojai vehicle platform, effective today". Secondary reporting lists 18 counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Yolo, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura.

Authorisation is not arrival

Nobody in Sacramento or San Diego can necessarily hail a paid Waymo today. The letter permits fared service; it does not deploy vehicles, and Waymo has signalled a gradual rollout. Fleet size appears nowhere in the document. Nor does square mileage — and outlets disagree on it badly, with one putting the prior service area at about 1,400 square miles and another citing 5,843 expanding to 47,493. Those figures are not in the primary source and should not be printed as fact.

How long this took

Waymo filed AL 0004 on 28 January 2026. It drew 2 protests — from San Diego MTS and its Taxicab Advisory Committee — alongside 29 responses in support. After CPED asked for more detail on unaccompanied minors and rider safety during service disruptions, Waymo filed supplemental AL 0004-A on 15 May, which drew 8 responses and no protests. Approval came three months later.

Two regulators, two permissions

California splits the question. The DMV decides whether a vehicle may drive itself and where; the CPUC decides whether passengers may be charged. Waymo's DMV operational design domain amendment was approved on 21 November 2025 — nine months before the commercial clearance that followed it.

What changed materially

Two things: the geography roughly doubles in county count, and a new vehicle platform enters paid service. Sacramento and San Diego are the first genuinely new metros in the set, and the Ojai approval matters because platform changes normally require their own safety case.

Why It Matters

Adding Sacramento and San Diego takes commercial robotaxi service beyond the Bay Area and Los Angeles for the first time, and the nine-month gap between driving permission and charging permission shows where the real regulatory bottleneck sits.