"I saw a Waymo at 7:30a on Stargell today being operated in self driven mode," reported an anonymous SeeClickFix user to the City of Alameda on Friday.

there was somebody in the passenger seat (presumably an employee doing the testing).

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Has Alameda authorized testing of Waymos?

The short answer is no, the City of Alameda has not authorized testing of Waymo's autonomous self-driving cars — because the City does not have that authority.

This decision is fully up to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in Sacramento and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco.

(The decision is also up to the NHTSA in Washington, D.C. But when was the last time you heard about that agency proactively reigning in a traditional auto manufacturer, let alone a "self driving car" company or Tesla?)

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This blog has previously reported how with extremely minor changes to the text of CVC §21100.5, Assemblymember Mia Bonta and State Senator Jesse Arreguín can get City of Alameda the authority to review and regulate vehicle types and sizes.

That authority is already granted to the island city of Avalon — and could be extended to Alameda as well.

Here is what the DMV and CPUC have currently allowed:

The DMV has expanded Waymo's permit to be able to operate vehicles on public roadways without any human safety drivers in the vehicle across this territory that now includes City of Alameda:

The operating permit allows for driverless operations at "all times of day and night" and in "all, rain, fog, and other conditions." (The permit does not allow for operations in snow — sorry, skiers.)

The California CPUC has received a request from Waymo to expand its permit to provide public carriage to riders across that expanded territory. CPUC recently announced that they are still collecting external protests and conducting their own review. CPUC staff are scheduled to announce their response in June.

That means for now Waymo can operate a robot vehicle on public roadways without a human "safety driver" in the driver seat in Alameda (per the DMV permit) — but Waymo cannot yet carry members of the public in one of its robot vehicles (pending an expansion of their CPUC permit).

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The person the SeeClickFix reporter saw in the passenger seat was likely a Waymo employee. Waymo has a history of letting its employees use the vehicles for their own commutes and errands under the DMV permit, while waiting on a CPUC permit to offer rides to the public.

So when we go on a little trip from Alameda to a rental at Sea Ranch next week (at the far extent of Waymo's DMV permit), my family and I won't be traveling by self-driving car. (Even though I'm a native of NorCal, I've never gone skiing during this so-called "ski week :)

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Trivia: While writing this blog post, I learned from Wikipedia that the founder of Velodyne (the best known developer of LIDAR sensors, which are the key ingredient for autonomous vehicles) has ties to Alameda. I've walked by the sandwich board for the "Floating Museum" on Blanding Ave. many times without making a reservation to board or learning the backstory.

To end on a more serious note: Waymo's sensor and control systems are genuinely interesting in terms of potentially improving traffic safety — but the testing, deployment, and adoption of these systems depends upon trust. The automotive sector has a spotty record — from Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed to recent Kia/Hyundai thefts to Waymo striking an elementary school student to whatever Elon Musk tweets out tomorrow. And the consumer tech behemoths are developing an equally spotty track record of slickly selling the public on products and services with subtly hidden tradeoffs. With federal regulators asleep at the wheel, we need to be able to trust that the California DMV and California PUC are vigorously assessing each permit application and each crash report from autonomous vehicle companies — not merely rubber stamping investor-backed fantasies.

"Look ma, no hands": Waymo enters Alameda