Five years after offering the world’s first ride in a self-driving car on public roads, Waymo is opening up its fully autonomous service to the general public in Phoenix, Arizona.
The service started on October 8 with people who are already Waymo One riders, but will be open over the next several weeks to anyone downloading the app who wants a ride within a 50-square mile (129.5-sq km) area of Phoenix. In the near term, the Alphabet-owned company says that 100 percent of its rides will be fully autonomous.
Later this year, after outfitting vehicles with barriers between the front row and the rear passenger cabin for hygiene and safety, Waymo will re-introduce rides with a trained vehicle operator. This will add capacity and allow Waymo to serve a larger geographical area of 100 square miles (259 sq km) around Phoenix, Arizona.
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“We expect our new fully driverless service to be very popular, and we’re thankful to our riders for their patience as we ramp up availability to serve demand,” Waymo said in a statement. “We’ve achieved this milestone with the thought and care that our riders expect from us. We’ve enhanced our health and safety policies and procedures throughout our fully-owned fleet, sought the feedback of our team, partners, riders, as well as federal, local, and state authorities, all while continuing to advance the Waymo Driver’s capabilities.”
The self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google parent Alphabet did not say where and when it will expand its robo-taxi business besides Phoenix. “You can imagine we’d love the opportunity to bring the Waymo One driver to our home state of California,” Waymo CEO John Krafcik was quoted as saying by Reuters.
In 2017, the company began its early rider program in the Metro Phoenix area with the fourth-generation Waymo Driver self-driving tech, using the full-size hybrid Chrysler Pacifica. For the last year, the company has pioneered fully driverless paid rides on high-speed roads across a service area larger than the city of San Francisco.
As the capability of the Waymo Driver got better, the company ramped up its efforts, with 5 to 10 percent of its rides in 2020 being fully driverless for an exclusive group of early riders under an NDA.
