California regulators approve state’s 1st robotic taxi fleet

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Technology Writer

California regulators have given a robotic taxi service the green light to begin charging passengers for driverless rides in San Francisco. The decision will make Cruise, a company controlled by automaker General Motors, the first fully driverless ride-hailing service in California. There are dozens of companies trying to train vehicles to steer themselves on increasingly congested roads. Waymo, a Google spinoff, has been offering a robotic taxi service in the Phoenix area since October 2020. Cruise’s San Francisco service initially will consist of 30 electric vehicles confined to transporting passengers in less-congested parts of the city late at night.