California to allow self-driving taxis with paying passengers

A self-driving car from General Motors’ Cruise subsidiary in traffic in San Francisco. — dpa

SAN FRANCISCO: Google’s sister company Waymo and General Motors subsidiary Cruise have been given the green light to launch commercial robot taxi services in California.

Although this is a major step forward in the long-promised and much-delayed driverless mobility trend, California will – at least initially – still require that a safety driver is at the wheel at all times, regulatory authority CPUC announced at the start of March.