San Diego EV drivers say Waymo robotaxis are crowding the city's public fast chargers. The Los Angeles Times reported on Oct. 30 that some drivers now find stalls taken by driverless Waymos, and one said he waited an hour for his turn last month.
What drivers say
"It becomes really annoying when you see three Waymos in a charging station with four spots," Ford Mustang Mach-E owner José Manjarrés told the Times. InsideEVs notes that drivers in Nashville and St. Louis have made similar complaints on social media.
Waymo's answer
A Waymo spokesperson told the Times: "As our operations in a city mature, we establish our own charging infrastructure and prioritize using dedicated charging." The company said cars driven or supervised by a human specialist may also charge on the road during the specialist's break. InsideEVs adds that Waymo has staff at some public sites and tries not to let its cars cluster at one station.
Nobody is breaking rules
- EVgo said its San Diego stations are public and open to all drivers, robotaxis included.
- The city says more than 50 sites will get chargers over the next 18 months, and that work is separate from any plans by private companies such as Waymo.
- A city spokesperson said robotaxis would not be barred from public stations and would pay the same fees as everyone else.
- On Sept. 14, the San Diego City Council unanimously passed a resolution asking the state to give cities more say over driverless cars.
The same problem is coming for any robotaxi fleet that grows faster than its depots, including Tesla's. Tesla's plan for Cybercab is automated charging with Optimus and inductive pads, but public Superchargers are shared with owners in the same way.
