Waymo said Wednesday it has applied for a permit to test its autonomous vehicles in New York City, the Alphabet company’s first step in a sticky regulatory process to bring its robotaxis to U.S.’s largest city.

Waymo says it applied for a permit from the city's Department of Transportation to test its vehicles with a trained specialist behind the wheel.

Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo said on Wednesday its vehicles will be back in New York City next month for autonomous testing, as it continues to scale operations in the U.S.

Waymos will be able to take passengers to Playa del Rey, Ladera Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake and the full stretch of Sunset Boulevard.

Waymo will temporarily limit robotaxi service in all of its nationwide markets, the company said Friday, as US cities prepare for a wave of protests of federal immigration policies and law enforcement and military crackdowns on demonstrators. The Alphabet subsidiary will stop service in Los Angeles altogether.

Waymo will expand into more areas of the San Francisco peninsula and parts of Silicon Valley, as the sole commercial robotaxi operator in the U.S. seeks to scale up operations, the Alphabet unit said on Tuesday.