area use an app to request a pick-up. By November 2019, the service was operating autonomous vehicles without a safety backup driver, the first autonomous service worldwide operating without safety drivers in the car. In 2021, the company started public testing in San Francisco. In October 2022, Waymo announced their plans to launch a robotaxi service in Los Angeles, California. On November 18, 2022, Waymo announced it will begin no-driver taxi services in San Francisco, California after the California Public Utilities Commission granted it a permit. Trucking and delivery "Waymo Via" is the trucking division of Waymo, which launched in March 2020. Using the same sensors and software as Waymo's other autonomous vehicles, Class 8 tractor-trailers began testing Waymo's self-driving technology in California and Arizona in 2017. In 2018, Waymo launched a pilot program with Google to use autonomous trucks to move freight to its sister company's Atlanta-area data centers. According to a Transport Topics news article, "Waymo does not intend to get into truck manufacturing or shipping services. Instead, it wants to work with OEMs and motor carriers to get its technology into vehicles." In October 2019, CEO John Krafcik stated that Waymo was fleshing out the trucking side of the business, and that self-driving commercial business vehicles might catch on faster than the ride-hailing robotaxi service. In June 2020, Waymo announced its plans to focus testing efforts on southwest shipping routes including, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. In August 2020 the company added a new trucking hub in Dallas, Texas, to test their fleet of Peterbilt trucks in various commercial settings. In October 2020, Waymo announced a global strategic partnership with Mercedes-Benz AG to integrate Waymo's driver technology into a fleet of Freightliner Cascadia semi-trailer trucks. Waymo has also expanded the use of their self-driving technology to commercial delivery vehicles. In January 2020 the company announced a pilot program with United Parcel Service, where Waymo vehicles transfer packages from UPS stores to a UPS sorting facility. This process allows packages at the UPS stores to be moved more rapidly into the UPS delivery system, instead of waiting to pick them up at the end of the day. In July 2020 Waymo and Stellantis announced an expansion of their partnership, including the development of level 4 autonomous Ram ProMaster delivery vehicles. Legal issues Waymo LLC v. Uber Technologies, Inc. et al. In February 2017, Waymo sued Uber and