San Francisco's

Waymo’s 2023 approval for 24/7 driverless-cab service made San Francisco a focal point for the collision between tech deployment, public backlash and city governance.

Who they are

This coverage label functions as a San Francisco-centered technology beat: the city appears as the operating ground, policy arena and social backdrop for companies including Waymo, Apple, Google, Facebook and Figma, rather than as a standalone technology company.

The recent arc

Recent coverage shifted from autonomous-vehicle authorization to the broader consequences of an AI-led resurgence. The California Public Utilities Commission’s 2023 decision allowing Waymo and Cruise to run driverless cabs around the clock was followed by reports of a crowd destroying a Waymo vehicle in February 2024 and a regulatory delay to Waymo’s planned expansion; the most recent Waymo story, about outrage over a cat killed by a robotaxi, shows the issue remained culturally charged into late 2025.

Alongside robotaxi scrutiny, 2025 stories portray the city as an AI boomtown: young leaders at Cognition AI, Cursor, Cluely and Scale AI were described as clustering in San Francisco, while AI-company housing demand was linked to the largest U.S. rent increase over the prior year. The intervening mayoral coverage of Dan Lurie also frames the city’s political leadership as seeking a workable relationship with technology leaders.

The tension

The central tension is whether San Francisco can capture the economic energy of AI and autonomous vehicles while retaining public consent and affordability. Waymo is the clearest flashpoint, with state-backed deployment colliding with local hostility and safety concerns; the AI-rent coverage extends that conflict from street-level technology to who can afford to live in the city.

Why it matters

If this trajectory holds, San Francisco’s importance will increasingly rest not just on hosting major technology firms, but on serving as an early test of whether fast-moving AI and autonomous systems can coexist with accountable regulation and livable urban conditions. The coverage suggests neither outcome is settled: technology leaders, state regulators, city politics and residents are all shaping the terms of deployment.

Related: San Francisco · California · Waymo · After a contentious public hearing, the California Public Utilities Co · San Francisco's next mayor, Dan Lurie, a Levi's heir with no political