Waymo has been allowed to map the roads at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) through a temporary permit – the first step of the alphabet company offering to unlock a potentially lucrative case for the robot.
The temporary license, announced Monday night by the mayor of San Francisco Daniel Lurie, began on March 14.
Waymo vehicles will not operate autonomously at the airport. Employees will manually drive vehicles to map the area. However, the license marks the start of a gradual approach to Waymo that is finally commercially operated there.
“This mapping permit is an important step towards achieving Waymo service to millions of people traveling to and from the city every year,” according to a statement by Nicole Gavel, head of business development and strategic partnerships in Waymo. “Many of these travelers have placed SFO on top of their service wishes list.”
The license marks a recovery for Waymo, which failed to obtain permission In 2023 to map the SFO. It also comes with some strings, including sharing data, in accordance with the language of the agreement aired by TechCrunch. This language will probably be included in future agreements with the City Airport and San Francisco Airport Committee, as Waymo promotes a gradual approach that begins with mapping, followed by autonomous tests with a human security operator, driver -free trials and finally commercial businesses.
Waymo must provide specific data after each mapping session per vehicle, according to the agreement examined by TechCrunch. This “data interface” requires Waymo to monitor its vehicles as it enters and leaves the airport and provides the time, geographical location, recognition, travel identifier, transaction type, only driver ID and vehicle registration number.
The deal also prohibits Waymo from using autonomous vehicles to move commercial goods. Waymo has closed the truck self-guidance program in 2023, and the company has since taken over its efforts to transport human-not-packages. However, language protects against future applications of commercial tradition, which has raised concerns between the international brotherhood of teamsters.
The restriction was enough to get the blessing of Peter Finn, Vice President of Western Region.
“We would like to thank Mayor Lurie for his leadership for gathering the parties and SFO Director Mike Nakornkhet for creating a standard for the responsible implementation of a new technology that takes into account the impact on security, jobs and community,” Finn said in a statement.
Waymo has increased efforts for more than a year to access pickups and drop-offs in SFO, according to the emails they saw and reported by TechCrunch at that time.
The approval process is long and requires a separate approval by the San Francisco Airport Committee. Technically, licenses can be issued at the airport’s discretion, SFO Doug Yakel spokesman at TechCrunch last year.
However, it is expected to reflect the process that SFO employees passed when Uber and Lyft first asked access a decade ago. At present, Waymo has a temporary access deal to Map SFO Airport Roadways. Waymo will eventually need a ground transfer permit to operate on SFO, which has not yet been approved.
