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.
From Electrek:
It sounds like ordering 20,000 vehicles from an automaker gets you on top of the list for deliveries.
Jaguar has now delivered its first production all-electric I-Pace in the US and Waymo got several for testing its autonomous driving technology.
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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 unveiled its latest vehicle equipped with its self-driving technology: a self-driving and all-electric Jaguar I-Pace.
They are building a fleet of those new vehicles to add to their existing test fleets and their upcoming commercial services, which is expected to launch later this year starting in Phoenix.
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Waymo is about to kick off its press conference at the New York Auto Show, and you can watch the livestream right here. The company is promising to unveil “the next step in self-driving,” but other the company showing than an image of the Waymo sensor suite, we aren’t really sure what that means.
Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving company born out of Google X, is seen by many as the leader in the field of self-driving.
After focusing on autonomous passenger cars to soon launch a self-driving ride-hailing service, the company is now expanding the effort to trucks.
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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 has a rather sizable advantage in the self-driving field. An order for “thousands” of more cars was announced yesterday, as the Alphabet division plans to soon launch a public ride service in Arizona. That lead is backed up by stats, with a report from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) noting the lowest disengagement rate among competitors.
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.
Just over a week after news of Waymo returning to San Francisco to train its autonomous fleet, the Alphabet division has announced a new city. The self-driving Chrysler Pacifica will soon be tested on the roads of Atlanta, Georgia.
Waymo made great strides throughout 2017 that culminated with the announcement that a public ride service is coming soon to Phoenix. Now, Alphabet’s self-driving division is returning to San Francisco to test its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica vehicles.
According to a report out of The Wall Street Journal today, customers of Waymo’s ride hailing service will be covered for any damaged property and trip-related medical expenses (hopefully none!) by a relatively new insurance startup out of Danville, California.
The Waymo case against Uber was due to begin in October, but was delayed to give the Alphabet division more time to examine last-minute evidence. Rescheduled to begin next week, the trial has again been postponed after information and other bombshell allegations that Uber withheld have surfaced.
Back in May, Alphabet’s Waymo announced that its autonomous vehicles have driven three million miles on public roads since the program’s inception in 2009. Six months later, that total has increased to four million miles.
Following eight years of development and a recent public awareness campaign, Waymo’s self-driving cars are now transporting passengers without a human behind the wheel. These fully autonomous rides started in mid-October and in the coming months will expand to the public as part of a ride-hailing service.
Alphabet’s Waymo announced today it is expanding its self-driving vehicle test program to Michigan in order to test in tougher winter conditions.
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Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber was surprising on a number of fronts, including Google and Alphabet’s normal hesitancy towards suits. However, as it stated, Waymo found Uber’s actions a particularly large affront. Reuters has now discovered what Waymo is demanding from Uber in settlement talks to stop the case from going to trial.