The CPUC cleared Waymo's Advice Letter No. 4, expanding its authorized operating area tenfold from Sonoma to San Diego. But approval isn't deployment, and the company says the rollout will be gradual.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Friday gave Waymo the go-ahead to run paid, no-driver rides across 18 counties — 12 in Northern California, six in the south, stretching from Sonoma to the Mexican border. The company called it↗ (external source, opens in a new tab) "big news for the Golden State" and promised a rollout paced by its safety review.

That pacing is the story. What Waymo won is permission, not presence. Its paid, rider-only service today runs on the San Francisco Peninsula, in San Jose, and inside Los Angeles city limits. The 18-county map is a license to operate, not a fleet on the road.

The decision clears Waymo's Advice Letter No. 4↗ (external source, opens in a new tab), filed with the CPUC on January 28. Regulators suspended it through late September for review, and, per Electrek↗ (external source, opens in a new tab), Waymo filed a supplement in May addressing unaccompanied minors and what happens to riders during service disruptions. Roughly seven months of back-and-forth over a single filing. It also sits on a separate track from the DMV, which had already approved↗ (external source, opens in a new tab) the enlarged operating area late last year. The CPUC is the layer that lets Waymo take your money.

The scale looks enormous on paper — reporting puts the authorized footprint near 47,500 square miles, up roughly tenfold. The deployment is not. Waymo runs about 3,000 vehicles, says it has passed 20 million trips, and is aiming for a million rides a week by year's end — a company target, not a filed number.

What to watch: San Diego, which Waymo says opens later this summer, and Sacramento, still in validation. Depots, charging, mapping and remote support all have to arrive before a county on the map becomes a car at your curb. No dates were given for the rest.