My colleague Caroline Petrow-Cohen<\/a> documented the company\u2019s victory in August<\/a>, when the California Public Utilities Commission gave Waymo the green light to expand into Marin, Napa, Orange and Riverside counties, among other places.<\/p>\n The expansion battle was met with resistance from labor unions and safety advocates who decried Waymos \u201cdragging down [of] labor standards<\/a>\u201d and glitches that blocked first responders<\/a> during emergencies.<\/p>\n However, a contingent of pro-autonomous vehicle backers, many from a group of 29 organizations<\/a> that advocated on behalf of Waymo to the CPUC, celebrated the expansion ruling.<\/p>\n Essential California spoke with some of these groups to see what drove their support.<\/p>\n You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n Sign up to start every day with California’s most important stories.<\/p>\n By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n \u2018A life-changing experience\u2019<\/p>\n Among Waymo\u2019s champions was Jessie Wolinsky, a disability advocate and member of South Carolina-based Foundation Fighting Blindness. <\/p>\n The 33-year-old legally blind San Francisco resident said Waymo offers a \u201clife-changing experience\u201d and a level of independence that other ride-hailing apps can\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was the first time I was able to be in a vehicle by myself,\u201d Wolinsky said. \u201cGetting into a car with a man at whatever hours of the night, I have some unsettling stories, as many women do \u2026 and this is about being safe from sexual assault.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolinsky said she\u2019s ridden Waymos throughout the Bay Area 644 times over the last few years, first as part of a tester program and later as a consumer.<\/p>\n She said she is sympathetic to the labor issue created by self-driving cars, noting that the blind community struggles with unemployment<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n However, she said she trusts self-driving vehicles over \u201csome human drivers who do some crazy [things].\u201d<\/p>\n Accessibility is strength<\/p>\n For Chris Cate, president and chief executive of San Diego\u2019s Regional Chamber of Commerce, Waymos bridge consumers and businesses.<\/p>\n He noted that older and physically impaired San Diego residents and workers can struggle to find commuting options, and doesn\u2019t see the harm with adding another choice to complement existing ride-hailing and public transit options.<\/p>\n He\u2019s perhaps most excited about the company\u2019s growth into downtown San Diego and its denser neighborhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cI think about our larger employment centers and people needing that last mile connection to work,\u201d he said. \u201cWaymo does that while also offering service to the many restaurants and businesses in a really core, urban area.\u201d<\/p>\n Trusting non-human drivers more<\/p>\n While technological advances in automobiles have improved safety for drivers and passengers, that isn\u2019t the case for road-sharing cyclists.<\/p>\n The number of preventable bicycle deaths soared 37% from 1,015 nationally in 2015 to 1,392 deaths in 2024, according to the National Safety Council<\/a>, while the number of people who bicycle<\/a> regularly has been relatively stable for the last several years. <\/p>\n Kendra Ramsey, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition<\/a>, sees the expansion of Waymo as a safety benefit, rather than a concern.<\/p>\n Her organization is dedicated to advocacy for bicycle riders and improved roadway safety.<\/p>\n \u201cWaymo has been very open and enthusiastic with the bicycling community about how their vehicles might be able to improve roadway safety,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve been impressed with how Waymo engineers have been thoughtful about how to better incorporate bicyclists\u2019 behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n She noted that Waymo\u2019s vehicles are attentive to obstructions in bicycle lanes that may force a cyclist to leave the safety zone, while human drivers are less gracious.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve spoken with bicyclists in the Bay Area who say, kind of ironically, \u2018I feel safer around a Waymo,\u2019 because you can just cut it off and it will stop,\u201d she said. \u201cA human driver might not.\u201d<\/p>\n The week\u2019s biggest stories (Brian van der Brug\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Change and concern in Los AngelesFuel and vehiclesFear natureMore newsEditor\u2019s pickMore picksThings to do (City of Malibu \/ Matt Myerhoff)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s recipe A margherita pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh pesto sauce at Prager Bros. Pizza in Carlsbad.<\/p>\n When you think about a fantastic pizza, one selection near the top should be the Pizza Margherita<\/a>. The dish was created in Naples, Italy, in the 19th century and is about as classic as you can get. Here\u2019s a simple recipe.<\/p>\n Photo of the day (Ariana Drehsler\/For The Times)<\/p>\n Games Here\u2019s today\u2019s mini crossword<\/a>, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jack Dolan, investigative reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recent expansion of the autonomous robotaxi service Waymo to new cities was met with support from ride-hail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-455097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pershing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788667817_116_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"Malibu](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788667820_367_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"Pizza](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788667823_542_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788667825_230_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"Mini](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/21\/ec\/25146a67473fbc80fa9a6e5bdb82\/minicrossword-kyle.svg\")
<\/p>\n
Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n