Waymo

The CPUC cleared Waymo on 14 Aug 2026 to charge for fully driverless rides across 18 counties — 12 in the north (the whole Bay Area plus Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and others) and six in the south (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura) — opening Sacramento and San Diego as new markets. The authority covers freeways, city streets, rural roads and rail crossings, day or night, in rain, fog and hail; only widespread snow or ice is excluded. It is permission, not deployment: Waymo says the rollout stays measured, so most of the approved territory has no service yet.

Waymo suspended all freeway rides (San Francisco, LA, Phoenix, Miami) to improve construction-zone handling, after recalling 3,791 vehicles over flooded-roadway incidents — a notable safety pullback on its hardest driving domain.