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Waymo is preparing to remove the human safety drivers from its cars in Sacramento within weeks, according to a city councilmember briefed on the company's plans, a move that would make the state capital the latest addition to a robotaxi map that already includes San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. The expansion pushes Waymo's driverless service further into California's interior, away from the dense coastal markets that first made autonomous vehicles a curiosity and then, gradually, a commute.

But about 385 miles down Interstate 5, in Santa Monica, the company is tangled in a fight over something far less glamorous than self-driving software: parking and electricity. City officials have banned Waymo from charging its vehicles overnight at two of its taxi stations, and the company has filed an appeal, arguing the restriction undermines its ability to run a truly round-the-clock service. Robotaxis, it turns out, still need somewhere to plug in, and not every city wants a fleet of idle, humming sedans on its curbs after dark.

The juxtaposition is a tidy summary of where Waymo finds itself in late 2025. In one city, it is graduating to full autonomy, a milestone that once seemed the province of press releases and pilot programs. In another, it is haggling over overnight charging like a landlord and tenant arguing about a lease clause. The company's growth is no longer constrained mainly by what its cars can do; it is constrained by what cities will let it do, block by block, station by station.

That distinction matters for the robotaxi industry broadly. Waymo has spent years proving the technology can navigate traffic, pedestrians and the occasional confused police officer. The Santa Monica dispute suggests the next phase of the business is less about algorithms and more about municipal permitting, curb space and the unglamorous infrastructure of keeping an electric fleet powered without becoming a neighborhood nuisance. Cities are discovering they have real leverage — over charging, staging areas and where cars can idle — even as they lose leverage over whether the vehicles operate at all, since state regulators in California have largely preempted local governments from blocking autonomous services outright.

For riders, the Sacramento move means another mid-size American city is about to get a taste of driverless hailing, likely at a lower price point than Uber or Lyft, and without a driver to tip. For residents near Waymo's charging stations, the Santa Monica fight is a reminder that the robots need substations, not just software, and that the quiet hum of a charging depot at 2 a.m. is now a matter for city council agendas. As Waymo's fleet grows into the thousands, these fights over sidewalks and outlets will multiply, and how cities resolve them may shape the pace of the robotaxi rollout as much as any breakthrough in the cars themselves.