Waymo lobbyists had a busy 2024.

A current assessment of lobbyist disclosure information by the San Francisco Examiner revealed Waymo paid lobbyists to fulfill with San Francisco authorities officers 348 occasions final 12 months, greater than double the 137 occasions it reported in 2023.

The pop in lobbyist exercise is in sync with Waymo’s enlargement in San Francisco — and its ambitions for the bigger Bay Space. Waymo has had a presence within the San Francisco space since 2009, but it surely wasn’t till August 2023 that the corporate was able to charge customers — 24 hours a day and all through the town — for rides in its fleet of self-driving Jaguar I-Tempo automobiles. 

Since then, Waymo has expanded its footprint and the variety of prospects it serves. Waymo dumped its waitlist final June for its San Francisco robotaxi service, eradicating the ultimate impediment for purchasers eager to make use of the self-driving expertise. Final 12 months, the corporate expanded its protection space by another 10 square miles to incorporate Bay Space cities and commenced testing driverless vehicles on SF freeways.

Waymo additionally needs to have the ability to decide up and drop off prospects on the San Francisco Airport, as TechCrunch reported last July; lobbyist disclosure information individually exhibits an uptick in visits with airport authority officers.