State agency says free rides necessary to keep passengers 'mindful' that they're in a driverless car
The Google offshoot wants to be ready for California when the state is ready for driverless taxis.
Waymo doesn’t need fare money to fund operations — Alphabet is an enormous profit machine, and holds more than $100 billion in cash. But Ivanov explained that experimenting with customer response to different fare structures is essential to building out the robotaxi business, which would be like Uber or Lyft but without a human driver.Smaller companies hoping to grab a piece of what could grow into an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars want to be able to charge fares too.
Experimenting with fare structures at different times of day and in different locations would help a company know where and when to begin offering a full-fledged commercial service, Kaufman said at the Oct. 22 hearing. “Regulatory certainty” is one reason the company will start out in Nevada, he said. It would help, he told the commission, “knowing that California is actually open for business.”
The commission declined to make commissioners or staff members available for an interview. A commission spokeswoman pointed to a“The free rides will identify the pilot program as different from ordinary transportation,” the document reads, “and, therefore, will encourage the public to be more mindful of their experience and provide critical feedback to the commission and the permit-holders.”
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