Waymo is one step closer to charging passengers for fully driverless rides in San Francisco. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has granted the company a Driverless Pilot permit, which allows it to pick up passengers in a test vehicle without a driver behind the wheel. By securing the permit, Waymo now has the authority to offer driverless rides throughout San Francisco, portions of Daly City, as well as in portions of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale. Its vehicles are allowed to go as fast as 65 miles per hour and can operate 24/7, but the company can't charge for the rides just yet. Waymo told Engadget that it will begin offering free rides without a driver to select members of the public in the coming weeks.

Waymo is considerably nearer to offering fully driverless rides to California residents. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles has greenlit an amended deployment permit that lets Waymo charge the general population for completely autonomous rides on public roads. The update clears the way for Waymo One to charge for passenger-only service in San Francisco, much like it does in Phoenix. This also allows for paid delivery services. The company isn't opening Waymo One's San Francisco operations to the public "at this time," a spokesperson told Engadget. Waymo has so far limited these rides to employees and "Trusted Testers" covered under existing deployment and testing permits.

GM's Cruise has started charging passengers for fully driverless rides in San Francisco. The company secured a driverless deployment permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) earlier this month, making it the first in the industry to do so. That allows Cruise to charge for rides with no safety driver behind the wheel, though its vehicles are limited to select streets in the city. In addition, the company's paid passenger service can only operate from 10PM to 6AM, and its cars can only drive at a max speed of 30 mph. Another limitation is that its driverless vehicles aren't allowed on highways and can't operate during times of heavy fog and rain.

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, Microsoft and Honda, has secured a permit that will allow the company to shuttle passengers in its test vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel. The permit, issued by the California Public Utilities Commission as part of its driverless pilot program, is one of several regulatory requirements autonomous vehicle companies must meet before they can deploy commercially. This permit is important -- and Cruise is the first to land this particular one -- but it does not allow the company to charge passengers for any rides in test AVs. "In order to launch a commercial service for passengers here in the state of California, you need both the California DMV and the California PUC to issue deployment permits. Today we are honored to have been the first to receive a driverless autonomous service permit to test transporting passengers from the California PUC," Prashanthi Raman, Cruise's director of Government Affairs said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued GM's Cruise the permit needed to be able to give passengers a ride without a driver behind the wheel. It's the first time (PDF) the commission has issued a permit of this kind, and it's a significant milestone for the CPUC's Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service Pilot Programs. Waymo and Cruise's other rivals already have "drivered" permits from the regulator, but they also have to secure this "driverless" permit to enable fully autonomous rides with passengers onboard. That said, Cruise can't start charging customers just yet. As Prashanthi Raman, Cruise's director of Government Affairs, explained to TechCrunch: "In order to launch a commercial service for passengers here in the state of California, you need both the California DMV and the California PUC to issue deployment permits. Today we are honored to have been the first to receive a driverless autonomous service permit to test transporting passengers from the California PUC."