Waymo autonomous cars are ubiquitous on San Francisco’s streets. To properly regulate the industry, Waymo and other companies need to divulge key data about their vehicles and ridership.

It seems like Waymos are everywhere in San Francisco these days — and it feels like there are more of them. You see them in the denser parts of the city, like downtown and the Mission, of course, but also cruising in quiet residential neighborhoods. You might see a procession of four or six of them on fast, busy thoroughfares like Geary but also on the steep, windy streets of my Glen Park neighborhood.

But just how many Waymos are on San Francisco’s streets at any given moment?

It’s a critical question. And we don’t know the answer to it. The company refuses to disclose that information, and there are no regulations to compel it to do so.

Article continues below this ad

That needs to change, particularly as the company and others like it dramatically scale up. Waymo’s performance during the blackouts in December in San Francisco eroded public trust in its technology. Offering greater data transparency would help restore it — and start needed discussions about other regulations for Waymo and the rest of the burgeoning autonomous taxi industry.

A fundamental challenge is the way autonomous vehicle companies have thus far defined safety. For them, safety is defined as not running into other things. Waymo vehicles seem to perform better than human drivers in this regard, based on data the company provides, reducing injury-causing crashes by 81% and serious-injury crashes by 90%.

See more S.F. Chronicle on Google

That certainly is one important aspect of safety. 

However, the autonomous vehicle industry and its regulators neglect other........

© San Francisco Chronicle