This is basically greenlighting further testing on CA roads, not actual driverless taxis. I don't expect that to be legally available on CA roads for a couple more years.
And then there can be the LinkedIn version which pools you with potential hires/recruiters.
Or the Github account version which pools Java and Python programmers together and livestreams the arguments to the Youtube account car ...
Existing taxis are ad platforms and not free, so this is still an improvement.
They're not collecting (AFAICT) facial information (though there is a camera in nearly all taxis, so it's possible) but it's hard to believe they aren't collecting route data even if it's just to place stands more efficiently to service commonly requested routes, at some point they might start selling that data... or they might be acquired and their acquirer might either sell off their data - or use their data internally for other purposes.
In the modern world we really have a lot of fuzziness when it comes to how usage data is treated. There are lots of UX people that want to know how people are using sites to make them better - but that same data can be resold for quite creepy purposes.
It also doesn't say to me that the safety driver has to be an employee. It could just be rider 0 on any given ride is required to be in the driver seat.
This looks very profitable to me.
I think "random" is the wrong descriptor for the scenario described
The key with driverless is to stop assuming that it has to work everywhere in all conditions or else it's useless. What's actually happening is that the cars are being trained for and tested in specific conditions and locations where they will roll out first (dry, sunny, well-maintained modern roads, etc.), then as the technology improves, the envelope will expand until at some point in the future they do actually work everywhere all the time.
How much are you willing to bet?