Waymo has been given permission to map roadways at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) via a temporary permit — the first step in the Alphabet company’s bid to unlock a potentially lucrative use case for its robotaxis.
The temporary permit, which was announced Monday evening by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, kicked off March 14.
Waymo vehicles will not operate autonomously in the airport. Employees will manually drive the vehicles to map the area. However, the permit signals the beginning of a phased approach to Waymo eventually operating commercially there.
“This mapping permit is an important step toward bringing the Waymo service to the millions of people who travel to and from the city each year,” according to a statement from Nicole Gavel, head of business development and strategic partnerships at Waymo. “Many of those travelers have placed SFO at the top of their service expansion wish list.”
The permit marks a turnaround for Waymo, which failed to secure a permit in 2023 to map SFO. It also comes with some strings attached, including data sharing, according to language in the agreement viewed by TechCrunch. This language will likely be included in future agreements with the city and San Francisco Airport Commission as Waymo pushes a phased approach that starts with mapping, followed by autonomous testing with a human safety operator, driverless testing, and eventually commercial operations.
Waymo has to provide specific data after each mapping session per vehicle, according to the agreement that TechCrunch viewed. This “data interface agreement” requires Waymo to track its vehicles as they enter and exit the airport and provide the time, geographic location, identification, trip identifier, transaction type, driver-based unique identifier, and vehicle license plate number, according to the agreement.
The agreement also prohibits Waymo from using autonomous vehicles to move commercial goods. Waymo shuttered its self-driving trucks program in 2023, and the company has since redoubled its efforts to shuttle people — not packages. However, the language protects against future applications of commercial delivery, which has raised concerns among The International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The restriction was sufficient to get the blessing of Peter Finn, Teamsters Western Region vice president.
“We would like to thank Mayor Lurie for his leadership in bringing the parties together and SFO Director Mike Nakornkhet for creating a template for the responsible implementation of new technology that takes into account the impact on safety, jobs, and the community,” Finn said in a statement.
Waymo ramped up efforts more than a year ago to gain access to pickups and drop-offs at SFO, according to emails viewed and reported by TechCrunch at the time.
The approval process is lengthy and requires a separate approval from the San Francisco Airport Commission. Technically, permits can be issued at the airport’s discretion, SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel told TechCrunch last year.
However, it is expected to mirror the process SFO officials went through when Uber and Lyft first sought access more than a decade ago. For now, Waymo has a temporary access agreement to map SFO airport roadways. Waymo will eventually need a ground transportation permit to operate at SFO, which has yet to be approved.