Driverless Waymo taxis now have state permission to operate in Marin County, but residents shouldn't expect to hail one on Fourth Street anytime soon.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved Waymo's expansion into Marin on Friday, Aug. 14, as part of a sweeping authorization covering 18 California counties. The approval more than triples the company's legal operating territory statewide, jumping from roughly 5,843 square miles to 47,493 square miles, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

But regulatory permission is not the same as cars on the road. Waymo has not announced a timeline for Marin, and spokesperson Sandy Karp said the company's immediate focus is launching rider-only service in San Diego and continuing to validate its technology in Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"It's not a time-based thing. It's a performance-based thing," Scott Moura, a UC Berkeley associate professor of transportation engineering, told the Marin IJ on Aug. 16. "It's not going to be immediately, that's for sure. It's not likely in the next few weeks. In the next months, it's possible it might get to the East Bay. It's very likely in the next year."

What stands between approval and deployment

Before a single Waymo can pick up a passenger in San Rafael, the company must satisfy separate California Department of Motor Vehicles requirements, including filing a detailed safety case framework for how it tests safety in each new area. New DMV regulations under Assembly Bill 1777, effective July 1, 2026, also allow police to issue formal noncompliance notices directly to autonomous vehicle manufacturers for traffic infractions.

Moura flagged a practical challenge specific to areas outside San Francisco's dense urban core: data connectivity. If a Waymo loses its cloud connection, the vehicle can stall and require intervention from a remote command center. In Marin's hillier terrain, that could be a recurring problem.

Local officials had already been courting Waymo

The approval didn't come out of nowhere. At a TAM executive committee meeting on Feb. 9, planner Mikaela Hiatt said Waymo had no immediate plans for Marin but that service was expected eventually. Marin County Supervisor Brian Colbert said at that meeting that Waymo goes to counties that show "we want you to be here."

Supervisor Mary Sackett said at the same meeting that she wanted TAM to explore autonomous microtransit, particularly for short trips around SMART stations.

San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin, who chairs the TAM board, has not commented publicly on the Aug. 14 approval. Colin's office did not respond to a request for comment.

What it could mean for San Rafael

Rebecca Long, director of legislation and public affairs for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, told the Marin IJ that autonomous vehicles could fill a gap for seniors, people with disabilities and young people who need first-mile and last-mile connections to transit hubs. But she cautioned that cities "are not designed to accommodate autonomous vehicles" and that higher traffic volumes are a concern.

That first-and-last-mile role could matter in San Rafael, where the planned relocation of the San Rafael Transit Center is among 21 Marin projects in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's draft $200 million transportation improvement program through 2030.

Waymo's fleet has logged more than 220 million fully autonomous miles since 2009 and reports 94% fewer serious-injury collisions compared to human drivers. The company did not respond to the Marin IJ's request for comment about its Marin timeline but said it looks forward to "keeping local officials and residents informed every step of the way."

No public meeting or comment deadline for Marin County residents has been announced, and TAM has not scheduled a board discussion in response to the approval.