Waymo is about to start out testing its driverless passenger automobiles on the freeway later this month, a crucial milestone for the corporate that, if profitable, will unlock expanded business operations.
The corporate said Monday that its autonomous Jaguar I-Tempo SUVs will start shuttling staff across the freeways in Phoenix, Arizona in just some weeks, after having spent a lot of the final 12 months doing testing with an operator behind the wheel. Driverless freeway service will finally increase to common clients, the corporate says, although it didn’t provide a timeline for when that can develop into obtainable.
Bringing its autonomous automobiles to the freeway is simply the newest in a collection of huge steps for Waymo, particularly within the Phoenix space. In December, the corporate began providing curbside dropoff and pickup on the Phoenix airport. Just some months earlier than that, Waymo made its autonomous automobiles obtainable within the Uber app.
These strikes have come as Waymo’s competitors has struggled to maintain up, particularly Cruise. The GM autonomous car subsidiary recently slashed a quarter of its staff and pushed out a variety of executives after a crash in October the place considered one of its robotaxis dragged a pedestrian.
Waymo’s progress hasn’t occurred in a superbly straight line. Final 12 months, the corporate backed away from its autonomous trucking effort so as to focus extra on ride-hailing. The corporate stated Monday that what it realized from the voluminous testing that went into the trucking mission, a lot of which occurred in Arizona, helps it take this step towards absolutely launching its passenger car program on highways.
