Here’s a complaint we hadn't considered about Waymos and self-driving cars, as at least 600 units of proposed housing are not getting built, because the property owners are getting quicker and easier money by renting out the lots as vehicle charging stations.

We have long bemoaned that it takes forever to build housing in San Francisco, and that gripe dates back to long before construction costs and interest rates started stalling housing development. But the Chronicle points to a possible new culprit in delays on San Francisco housing, in an analysis that says sites proposed for housing are being rented out as electric vehicle charging stations or storage sites, with the majority of these being rented by the robotaxi company Waymo.

The inference here is that properties which could be becoming badly needed new housing are instead being used to get a quicker buck from Google-owned Waymo.

“I could definitely see why developers are inclined to put in AV charging stations given the cost and difficulty of building housing in San Francisco,” UC Berkeley Ph.D candidate in autonomous vehicles Michael Montilla told the Chronicle. "It’s a balancing act, but in some cases AV might be the easier revenue-generating option."

The Chronicle identifies seven properties being used for Waymos or EV charging, but to lump all seven together is oversimplifying things. For one, each of the properties is described as having an “Application submitted” for housing, so it's not as if these are approved housing sites being used otherwise — they may be in permitting limbo. And we should note that some of these are vehicle charging stations, while others are just being used for vehicle storage.

Still, there are some notable properties where AV uses seem likely to delay the ground-breaking in housing projects. Most notably, 777 Harrison Street is currently a Waymo storage site, but is described by the Chronicle as having an application for 572 units. A site at 350 Pacific Avenue could be 78 units, but is also being used as Waymo storage. A site at 1201 Eighth Street is Waymo parking that’s otherwise slated to become 15 dwelling units, and another Waymo storage spot at 120 Perry Street has plans to be a “14-story, 185-foot tall, mixed-use building” as the Chronicle explains. But that does not describe the number of housing units in the project.

Meanwhile, some of the Chron’s examples should perhaps be discounted. They list 350 Second Street, the parking lot which became notorious for late-night Watymo horn-honking, though Waymo has pulled out of that property, and it’s slated to be a hotel anyway. So that does not affect housing stock. Similarly, the Chronicle also includes one Potrero Hill property with plans to become a biotech and lab space, so that’s not a housing site either.

And the seventh property the Chron lists is not a Waymo charging station, but instead a North Beach Tesla charging station, at a property that has plans to build 24 condo units. Each of these developments could be delayed, or even scrapped, because of quicker and easier money from Waymo or an EV business.  

“Pretty clearly in San Francisco we have a housing crisis, and it’s outright bad public policy to build charging stations and store robot taxis on land that could be used to build housing for middle-class working people struggling to live in our city,” Teamsters Joint Council 7 president Peter Finn told the Chronicle.

We should note the Teamsters are hardly a neutral party here. They represent drivers who could lose income to autonomous cars, and construction workers who would suffer from the scrapping of housing projects. The Teamsters are actively fighting a proposed Waymo charging station at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue (that one is the aforementioned biotech lab space, not a proposed housing site).

These AV/EV charging spaces are not necessarily cheap to throw in — they can cost nearly half a million dollars, and come with a city approval process that can take nine months or longer. But for property owners, Waymo is a very rich client to pull in. While Waymo itself is nowhere near profitable, Google and parent company Alphabet certainly are, and they are willing to spend.

These charging and storing stations may only be only temporary — a short-term revenue source while property owners wait for city approvals, given that the residential units are likely to be far more profitable when all is said and constructed.

Related: Waymos Infuriate SoMa Neighborhood With Cacophony of 4AM Horn-Honking [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist