There's More to Operating A Robotaxi Than The Tech

A decade ago, it was looking like a lot of companies were making rapid progress on maturing automated driving technology. Executives of companies like Uber and Lyft, Wall Street financial analysts, and Elon Musk and his rabid fan base got overly excited about the prospect of printing mountains of money by simply eliminating the highest cost in ride-hailing: paying the driver. However, as usual, it was never going to be that simple. Waymo has by far the largest robotaxi operation outside of China, and this past week, it just ran up against yet another operational challenge. 

The development of the core technology for automated driving systems (ADS) has come a long way in the 18 years since the DARPA Grand Challenge concluded. While it’s not yet fully mature, for a number of companies like Waymo, Baidu, WeRide, and several other Chinese companies, it's far enough along to run commercial services carrying passengers in multiple cities. But there's much more to robotaxi services than removing the human driver. Robotaxis require depot facilities where they can be cleaned, serviced, and charged. 

With app-based ride-hailing like Uber and Lyft, the driver is responsible for all of that. Not all of the fares paid by the platforms to the drivers who sign up go into their pockets as profit. They have to purchase, lease, or rent the vehicle, put in fuel or electricity, pay for consumables like tires and brakes, and clean the vehicle. The platforms also only pay when the driver is carrying a passenger. Drivers earn nothing while waiting in between rides or while driving to pick up locations. 

The shift to robotaxis now makes the owner/operator of the robotaxi fully responsible, meaning that cost savings and potential profits are, at least for now, nonexistent. A human driver also probably parks their car wherever they live, while a robotaxi operator must purchase or lease facilities. Ideally, those facilities are close to where vehicles are operating and transporting passengers. Otherwise, there's additional downtime getting to or from the depot where no revenue is generated. Depending on the location, the real estate for those depots can be extremely expensive, such as in San Francisco or Santa Monica, California.

All of that background brings us to Waymo’s latest challenge in Santa Monica. The Alphabet subsidiary opened two new depots in Santa Monica in late 2024. These are primarily used for charging the fleet of robotaxis, which are exclusively electric since Waymo retired its Chrysler Pacifica fleet a couple of years ago. Between these two locations, there's space for 56 vehicles, all of which are currently the Jaguar i-Pace. 

Like most commercial vehicles, the Waymo robotaxis are equipped with an audio alert when backing up to alert pedestrians and other vehicles. Needless to say, reversing to maneuver in these relatively small lots, which are operated under contract by Voltera, is quite common. Whenever possible, Waymo probably wants to charge its vehicles overnight to get the lowest electricity rates, and there's also less demand for the vehicles. On top of the vehicles, the transformers and fans for the DC fast chargers being used by Waymo and Voltera also make a significant amount of noise. 

Needless to say, it was no surprise when local residents began complaining to the city about all the late-night commotion from these Waymo depots. The Santa Monica city council voted 6-0 on November 18 to ban such operations between 11 pm and 6 am. Waymo is pushing back, claiming that its permits allow for overnight charging at these locations. 

Waymo may well be legally correct, but services like this also need to be good neighbors. Over the past several years, there has been a lot of community pushback against Waymo, Cruise, and other ADS developers, especially in San Francisco. Protests have included placing traffic cones on the hoods of vehicles to confuse them so they don’t move, vandalism, and complaints to various regulatory agencies like the California Public Utilities Commission, which issues licenses for robotaxi services to carry paying passengers. Most recently, there have been protests in San Francisco after a Waymo Jaguar ran over and killed a neighborhood cat. 

If companies like Waymo and Zoox don’t have a good relationship with local residents, they may well refuse to use the service, particularly since these services tend to be considerably more expensive than human-driven ride-hailing options. The human factor is just one of many that companies will have to address in the coming years as they try to scale their business to achieve profitable operations.