Waymo to launch fully driverless service to the public

Friday, 9 October 2020

Waymo is launching fully driverless vehicles to the public, a milestone achievement for Silicon Valley's self-driving car industry that comes during a global pandemic where efforts to limit person-to-person contact have found a welcoming audience.

The company, a part of Google-parent Alphabet, said Thursday it is opening up driverless ride-hailing service to riders in the Phoenix metro area, enabling anyone in the region to download its app and hail a ride without a driver in the front seat.

It follows an extended public trial for the company's ride-hailing service where riders were able to use it for commutes, grocery runs and routine tasks such as bringing their kids to school. Some of these had a backup driver in the vehicle in case things went wrong.

Waymo and FCA have covered ‘more than 20 million miles’ on public roads with self-driving Chrysler Pacificas.

During that launch period, Waymo said, it gradually expanded its service and the capabilities of its vehicles - the vast majority of which were monitored by human drivers. Waymo spokeswoman Katherine Barna said the company was giving between 1000 and 2000 weekly rides before the Covid-19 pandemic, five to 10 per cent of which were fully driverless.

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The company shut down its service earlier this year because of the pandemic. But 'we expect to reach and exceed that volume as we ramp back up,' Barna said.

Previously, driverless trips were offered only to an exclusive group of early adopters. But in the near term, “100 per cent of our rides will be fully driverless,' Waymo CEO John Krafcik said in a blog post announcing the move.

Arizona's lax regulatory landscape and arid climate have made it a haven for driverless vehicles.

But the experiments have not been without incident. In 2018, a self-driving Uber fatally struck a pedestrian crossing a darkly lit street with her bicycle in Tempe, Ariz. The driver monitoring the car was looking at her phone, authorities said.

Waymo relied on a process including a 'rigorous review of our safety readiness' before making the decision to launch driverless cars to the public, Barna said. The company informed the state's transportation department of its testing plans before the announcement, she said.

Krafcik said the company will gradually roll out its driverless service in the region, beginning with those who are already part of its self-driving car service Waymo One.

'Later this year, after we've finished adding in-vehicle barriers between the front row and the rear passenger cabin for in-vehicle hygiene and safety, we'll also be reintroducing rides with a trained vehicle operator, which will add capacity and allow us to serve a larger geographical area,' he wrote.