Waymo’s SFO Mapping Permit comes with attached strings

Waymo was authorized to map the road sails at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) through temporary permission – the first step in the Alphabet Company offer to unlock a potentially lucrative case for its robotaxis.

The temporary authorization, which was announced on Monday night by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Luri, began on March 14.

Waymo vehicles will not work autonomously at the airport. Employees will manually drive vehicles to map the area. However, the permit signals the beginning of a gradual approach to Waymo, in the end it works on the commercial network there.

This mapping permit is an important step to bringing Waymo to the millions of people traveling to and from the city every year. Many of these travelers have placed SFO at the top of their list of desires to expand the services, according to a statement by Nicole Gavel, head of business development and strategic partnerships at Waymo.

Permission marks a turning out for Waymo, which Failed to provide permission In 2023, to map SFO. It is also available with strings, including data sharing, according to the language in the agreement discussed by TechCrunch. This language is likely to be included in the future agreements with the City and San Francisco Airport Commission, as Waymo presses a gradual approach, which begins with mapping, followed by autonomous tests with a human safety operator, testing without drivers and possibly commercial operations.

Waymo must provide specific data after each vehicle mapping session, according to the agreement that TechCrunch is looking at. This “Data Interface Agreement” requires Waymo to track its vehicles when they enter and leave the airport and provide time, geographical location, identification, travel identifier, transaction type, unique driver -based identifier and license plate number, according to the agreement.

The agreement also prohibits Waymo from using autonomous vehicles to relocate commercial goods. Waymo Close your self -driving program in 2023And since then the company has doubled its efforts to transfer people – not packages. Language, however, protects against future commercial delivery applications that caused concerns among The International Brotherhood of TeamsS

The restriction was enough to receive the blessing of Peter Finn, Vice President of Teamsters Western Region.

“We would like to thank Mayor Luri for his management in the unification of SFO countries and SFO Director Mike Nacornhaet for the creation of a template for the responsible implementation of the new technology that takes into account the impact on safety, jobs and the community,” Fin said in a message.

Weimo bombarded the effort More than a year ago To access pickups and dropping in SFO, according to emails viewed and reported by TechCrunch at the time.

The approval process is long and requires separate approval from the San Francisco Airport Commission. Technically, the permissions can be issued at the discretion of the airport, SFO spokesman Doug Jakel told TechCrunch last year.

However, they are expected to reflect the process of SFO employees when Uber and Lyft first sought access to more than a decade ago. So far, Waymo has a temporary access agreement to map the SFO airport road lanes. Ultimately, Waymo will need a permit for terrestrial transportation to work in SFO, which has not yet been approved.