Driverless scenic coastal road trips could soon be possible.
the California Department of Motor Vehicles published a document outlining a list of newly approved areas of coverage for Alphabet, Inc.’s robotaxi service Waymo, and the implications could be massive.
The areas where “testing and deployment” of Waymo driverless taxis will now be legally tolerated by the state include two massive, apparently continuous swaths of geography full of interconnected urban population centers, suburbs, exurbs, and the rural land in between them. This includes chunks of (in alphabetical order) Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, Napa, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Ventura, and Yolo Counties.
The new map includes much of California wine country, and fills in the remainder of the Bay Area.
