Ahead of his term ending, President Trump late this evening issued 143 clemencies. One of the pardons was for Anthony Levandowski, who was convicted of stealing Google’s self-driving technology before departing for Uber.
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Besides operating a ride-hailing service, Waymo is offering its self-driving technology to carmakers. The latest deal sees Waymo partner with the Volvo Car Group.
Early last year, Waymo reached a nearly quarter billion dollar settlement with Uber that ended an ongoing trial over stolen self-driving technology. Federal prosecutors today charged former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski with theft of the former company’s trade secrets.
Besides running a public ride service, Waymo is partnering with car makers and working on self-driving trucks to monetize its autonomous technology. The latter effort is getting a boost with the hiring of just over a dozen former Anki engineers.
Waymo has largely been testing and operating self-driving cars in the United States. The Alphabet division today announced a partnership with Renault and Nissan to bring autonomous vehicles to France, Japan, and other parts of the world.
In a post on Medium, Waymo has confirmed massive expansion plans for a Technical Service Center in Mesa, Arizona.
One metric to rank self-driving technology and advancement is by looking at the rate of disengagements. California mandates that companies testing in the state report this figure every year and Waymo shows a marked decrease in 2018 while driving more miles.
Besides offering a Lyft and Uber competitor, Waymo is also exploring self-driving trucks as it makes its technology available to carmakers in order to monetize its decade-long work on autonomy. A report today revealed a possible partnership with the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance.
The advent of any new technology is accompanied with complaints, as seen with Wing’s delivery drones, but in the case of self-driving cars there have been more radical expressions of discontent. As Waymo tests and operates vehicles in Phoenix, some Arizona residents have taken to threatening or even damaging the cars.
Nine years since the Google Self-Driving Car Project began and over 10 million autonomous miles later, the company today announced the launch of Waymo One. The Alphabet division is launching the first public self-driving service in Phoenix, Arizona and fully detailing how hailing an autonomous vehicle works.
Waymo is slated to launch a public self-driving car service in Phoenix sometime in the next two months. Ahead of that, the Alphabet company is hiring both a Chief Safety Officer and a Chief Business Officer.
For the past year, Waymo has been testing an autonomous ride service in Phoenix, Arizona ahead of public availability. CEO John Krafcik last night revealed that a launch is coming in the next two months, while another report details how the Alphabet company will be directly competing against Lyft and Uber.
Waymo just announced that it was granted permission to autonomously test vehicles in California. Though widely regarded as having the lead in self-driving, the Alphabet division still has accidents. However, the latest was the fault of the car’s safety driver.
Waymo is gearing up for the self-driving future by exploring how the new technology impacts existing infrastructure and creates new experiences. The latest involves a partnership with an Arizona public transportation system to have autonomous vehicles solve the “last mile” challenge.
Waymo announced in the past month that it’s driving a million miles roughly every month, while its Phoenix pilot has 400 daily riders. That year-long program is revealing insights about people’s first interactions with autonomous vehicles, with the Alphabet division today announcing new partnerships with local businesses.
Waymo is set to launch a public ride sharing service later this year, with the pilot program hitting the one year mark last month. The Alphabet division today announced its latest milestone of autonomously driving eight million miles since its inception as Google’s Self-Driving Car project.
Last April, Waymo launched an Early Rider program in Arizona to let the public experience self-driving cars to get to places. Ahead of a commercial launch, the Alphabet division has detailed what it’s learned in a year about operating an autonomous ride service.
After ordering thousands of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans in January, Waymo is drastically expanding its self-driving fleet with an 62,000 more vehicles. It comes ahead of the Alphabet division’s first ride service this year, while the company is also in discussions to allow others to sell cars that feature its autonomous technology.
Widely regarded as the leader in autonomous vehicles, Waymo is slated to launch a public ride service later this year in Arizona. To build public awareness for the Uber/Lyft competitor and its technology, the Alphabet division appears to be embarking on an advertising campaign with the first ad going live today.
Reports are coming in this afternoon of an accident involving a Waymo Chrysler Pacifica minivan. The crash in Chandler, Arizona only resulted in minor injuries, with early accounts suggesting that the autonomous vehicle was not at fault.
Waymo is widely regarded as the leader in self-driving, so much so that Uber is willing to partner with the Alphabet division to supply autonomous vehicles for its ride service. This news comes following Uber’s settlement last month, as well as the company’s less combative stance.
Reaching a settlement with Uber earlier this month, Waymo’s latest technological milestone is driving 1 million miles in under 3 months for a grand total of 5 million. Meanwhile, the Alphabet division has released a 360 degree video that shows what its vehicles are seeing in real-time.
On the fifth day of the Waymo v. Uber trial in San Francisco, the two tech giants announced that they’ve reached a settlement. The case has officially been dismissed with Uber paying the Alphabet division approximately a quarter of a billion dollars.
Waymo’s 2017 culminated with the announcement that its fully autonomous public ride service was coming soon to Arizona. The Alphabet division is now continuing that momentum with the purchase of more self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
