For people that need to catch a ride from point A to point B in the city of San Diego, there are currently a few options outside of a personal vehicle or public transit.
Residents and tourists often hire a driver through rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft, or they can hail a cab.
Soon, a new type of rideshare vehicle will hit the road in the city — without a person behind the wheel.
“I’m thinking for the safety like, a car with no driver in there. I don't know how the people trust,” said cab driver Jama Ali.
Waymo is already in five cities across the United States, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The company points to their own data that shows Waymo vehicles are safer than the average human driver.
Now, the company plans to expand to the city of San Diego, starting with a fleet of about a dozen driverless taxies at some point next year.
Ali lamented about what the future of his job may look like.
“I’m worried about it, I don't know what's going to happen when they start in the city,” he said.
While the announcement brings excitement for some residents, it’s not such good news for others.
“If you've seen them, they drive in a certain manner, and people behave around them in a certain manner, because we know it's a little Waymo,” said Crystal Pham. "It's not going to be able to navigate the same way a human does, or you cannot communicate with it by looking a person in the eyes.”
Pham now lives in San Diego’s Normal Heights neighborhood. She used to live in San Francisco, where over 1,000 Waymo vehicles drive in the city. Now, the company is expanding cars' ability to drive on freeways in San Francisco, Phoenix and LA.
“I don't love that these things are following me here. Especially because everyone who has lived in San Francisco knows that they are awful for traffic,” Pham said.
Mikaiil Hussein is executive director of United Taxi Workers of San Diego. They represent over 400 members.
“Putting in Waymo is a big deal for us because we (are) already struggling between all rideshare companies, Uber, Lyft and other people,” he said.
Hussein said they're advocating against Waymo to local and state officials, over concerns regarding fair competition.
“Driverless cars — you know what that means. That means the regular human beings, they will lose their business,” Hussein said.” And if they launch fully and they capture everything, what’s going to happen? What's going to happen is no one will make business. I'm not against technology, but we need fair. And it doesn't look like it's fair.”
Waymo said they're “expanding to San Diego to provide safer, more accessible transportation options that complement the city's existing infrastructure.”
“We’ll initially be driving in the downtown core as we gradually expand across the broader metropolitan area over time,” Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina said in a statement.
Those other areas include communities like Pacific Beach, Mission Hills and Liberty Station.
A blog post from the company quotes San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
“By welcoming innovative and promising technologies like Waymo’s autonomous vehicle service, we’re exploring how to make transportation more accessible, more sustainable, and more connected for everyone in our community,” Gloria said in the post.
Regarding what’s next for Waymo in San Diego, city spokesperson Peter Kelly said the company “is currently in the final stages of securing a permit from the California DMV to operate autonomous vehicles in the San Diego region.”
Kelly also said Waymo will also need to obtain approval for commercial/passenger operations through the California Public Utilities Commission.
Ali said human connection is one thing robotaxis can't easily replace.
“We talk to the people — especially tourists. We navigate to the place they need to go. They ask about the city, where to go, places to visit, all this stuff,” Ali said.
Waymo has not yet announced when San Diego service will launch in 2026.
