Waymo Driverless Taxi Now Available to Public in Phoenix

[Hamartia Antidote]

Waymo Driverless Taxi Now Available to Public in Phoenix

Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of

www.insurancejournal.com

Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of autonomous vehicle research into a revenue-producing business.

Waymo, the self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google parent Alphabet, Inc. said it will start offering rides in minivans with no human attendant on board to current members of its Waymo One service in Phoenix. Within a few weeks, Waymo plans to open access to anyone who downloads its smartphone app and wants a ride within a 50-square mile area of Phoenix.

Waymo chief John Krafcik said during a conference call that the company for now will offer only rides in driverless cars. Within a few weeks, Waymo will relaunch service for a larger, 100 square mile swath of the Phoenix area, using Pacifica minivans made by partner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV .

Some of the Waymo vans in Phoenix will still have attendants on board.

Waymo has not said where or when it will expand its robo-taxi business beyond Phoenix. “You can imagine we’d love the opportunity to bring the Waymo One driver to our home state of California,” Krafcik said.

Before the coronavirus pandemic forced Waymo to suspend operations this spring, Waymo was using vehicles with no human attendant on board to provide five to ten percent out of a total of 1,000 to 2,000 rides per week in its Phoenix service zone, Krafcik said. Rides in fully autonomous vehicles were limited to a small, selected group of Waymo customers.

Waymo’s move to expand service using vehicles with no attendant on board puts it ahead of rival robo-taxi companies in deploying a revenue generating service in the United States. Waymo earlier this year raised more than $3 billion, mostly from outside investors.

Cruise, majority controlled by General Motors Co., is testing vehicles in San Francisco, but has so far not offered rides to the public.

The pandemic has depressed demand for ride hailing services of all kinds. Waymo has stepped up attention to sanitation of its vehicles in response, Krafcik said. Waymo will monitor vans remotely, and employees will remind customers to keep masks on in the vehicles. Vehicles will be cleaned regularly under a maintenance and fleet management partnership with auto retailer AutoNation Inc, Krafcik said.

Fiat Chrysler has engineered a system that can flush the air from a minivan after every ride, he said.

The field of companies trying to develop self-driving vehicles has been consolidating as technology and regulatory challenges pushed the prospects of significant revenue from carrying passengers further into the future. Waymo and other autonomous vehicle technology companies have put increased focus on automating commercial vehicles for goods delivery.

Waymo rival Zoox was acquired earlier this year by Amazon.com Inc. Ride hailing company Uber Technologies Inc was set back by a fatal accident involving one of its test vehicles.

The U.S. Congress has failed to act on proposals to create standards and safety regulations the industry can rely on as a legal shield when deploying self-driving vehicles.

In Arizona, Waymo said it informs state officials ahead of any change in its service.

 

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[Hamartia Antidote]

Waymo at night

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

 

[khansaheeb]

That's going to mean more unemployment and another corporate domination in one more field.
I was speaking to one of the software engineers on the Waymo team a while back and asked him if a large piece of plastic or newspaper flew across the car what would it did do and he said it would slam the breaks on. There are lots of unknowns with this car and just like the aircraft industry, experience is going to be gained through trial and error and a few crashes. Under ideal conditions it will drive fine but if something new comes up how will it react is the key. From ice on the road to tumultuous rain and hail stones , high wind speed, slippery surfaces , holes in the road; predictive decision making is going to require a lot of AI work. It's a frightening achievement, another step in machines taking over the lives of people , slowly and systematically, we are losing control and putting our destiny in the hands of AI, computers, servos and software and the rich few.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I was speaking to one of the software engineers on the Waymo team a while back and asked him if a large piece of plastic or newspaper flew across the car what would it did do and he said it would slam the breaks on.

This is just another example of why LIDAR is a dumb idea and why computer vision R&D (like Tesla is doing) is far more critical. The AI will eventually identify that as a piece of paper or plastic just as you or I would.

 

[Kruelwrld]

Waymo Driverless Taxi Now Available to Public in Phoenix

Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of

www.insurancejournal.com

Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of autonomous vehicle research into a revenue-producing business.

Waymo, the self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google parent Alphabet, Inc. said it will start offering rides in minivans with no human attendant on board to current members of its Waymo One service in Phoenix. Within a few weeks, Waymo plans to open access to anyone who downloads its smartphone app and wants a ride within a 50-square mile area of Phoenix.

Waymo chief John Krafcik said during a conference call that the company for now will offer only rides in driverless cars. Within a few weeks, Waymo will relaunch service for a larger, 100 square mile swath of the Phoenix area, using Pacifica minivans made by partner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV .

Some of the Waymo vans in Phoenix will still have attendants on board.

Waymo has not said where or when it will expand its robo-taxi business beyond Phoenix. “You can imagine we’d love the opportunity to bring the Waymo One driver to our home state of California,” Krafcik said.

Before the coronavirus pandemic forced Waymo to suspend operations this spring, Waymo was using vehicles with no human attendant on board to provide five to ten percent out of a total of 1,000 to 2,000 rides per week in its Phoenix service zone, Krafcik said. Rides in fully autonomous vehicles were limited to a small, selected group of Waymo customers.

Waymo’s move to expand service using vehicles with no attendant on board puts it ahead of rival robo-taxi companies in deploying a revenue generating service in the United States. Waymo earlier this year raised more than $3 billion, mostly from outside investors.

Cruise, majority controlled by General Motors Co., is testing vehicles in San Francisco, but has so far not offered rides to the public.

The pandemic has depressed demand for ride hailing services of all kinds. Waymo has stepped up attention to sanitation of its vehicles in response, Krafcik said. Waymo will monitor vans remotely, and employees will remind customers to keep masks on in the vehicles. Vehicles will be cleaned regularly under a maintenance and fleet management partnership with auto retailer AutoNation Inc, Krafcik said.

Fiat Chrysler has engineered a system that can flush the air from a minivan after every ride, he said.

The field of companies trying to develop self-driving vehicles has been consolidating as technology and regulatory challenges pushed the prospects of significant revenue from carrying passengers further into the future. Waymo and other autonomous vehicle technology companies have put increased focus on automating commercial vehicles for goods delivery.

Waymo rival Zoox was acquired earlier this year by Amazon.com Inc. Ride hailing company Uber Technologies Inc was set back by a fatal accident involving one of its test vehicles.

The U.S. Congress has failed to act on proposals to create standards and safety regulations the industry can rely on as a legal shield when deploying self-driving vehicles.

In Arizona, Waymo said it informs state officials ahead of any change in its service.

Self driving vehicles are the future and I think will be very beneficial to the US. A lot of people are afraid of these new technologies taking jobs. While true they will take jobs new ones will be created in different fields relating to these new technologies. Their is a company in Phoenix working on self driving trucks. My brother being a truck driver I asked him what he thought and he didnt really seem to worry. He said that the company he worked for need 50 more drivers but not many people want to be drivers so self driving trucks would help companies make up the difference.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Self driving vehicles are the future and I think will be very beneficial to the US. A lot of people are afraid of these new technologies taking jobs. While true they will take jobs new ones will be created in different fields relating to these new technologies. Their is a company in Phoenix working on self driving trucks. My brother being a truck driver I asked him what he thought and he didnt really seem to worry. He said that the company he worked for need 50 more drivers but not many people want to be drivers so self driving trucks would help companies make up the difference.

Plus with modernization some jobs in the past people complained about losing seem rather silly now.

Elevators used to have people inside manning control levers to start/stop them. A button panel replaced them.

Horses had blacksmiths and handler jobs. Autos put them out of work.

Phones had people in switchboard panels manually placing calls. Direct dialing put them out of work.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

This Kills Jobs so It is a No for me

 

[Aspen]

Damn I'm gonna try this myself next time I go to Phoenix

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

This Kills Jobs so It is a No for me

That's okay. Modernization isn't for all peoples and countries.

Damn I'm gonna try this myself next time I go to Phoenix

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‎Waymo One

‎Get there with the Waymo Driver — The World’s Most Experienced Driver™ The Waymo One app is making it safer, more accessible, and more sustainable to get around — without the need for anyone in the driver’s seat. Today, anyone can take an autonomous ride with Waymo One in San Francisco or the...

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