Google Waymo is fully opening self-driving robotaxi in San Francisco, USA. Until now, it had been a pilot operation with only just a few passengers who had made reservations prematurely, but any longer, it’ll begin operating 24 hours a day throughout San Francisco.
CNBC reported on the twenty fifth (local time) that Waymo has decided to totally open its self-driving robotaxi call service, which had been operated on a limited basis in San Francisco, California, USA.
Waymo launched a business robotaxi test service in San Francisco in August 2021 for pre-approved passengers. It was expanded to Waymo employees in March 2022, and later most of the people was capable of board the vehicle after pre-registering. In line with Waymo, the variety of robotexy passengers to this point is about 300,000.
Now, we consider that now we have the technology to operate autonomous vehicles in any urban road environment, and we’re opening the service to all users.
Waymo has provided greater than 2 million paid services over the past 15 years because it launched its first service in Palo Alto in 2009.
It also operates in Phoenix and Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. The cumulative distance driven by autonomous, driverless taxis exceeds 32.18 million kilometers (km).
CNBC said, “GM Cruise recently halted its driverless taxi operation as a consequence of a security incident, but Waymo is somewhat free from this controversy,” suggesting that Waymo’s technology is more competitive than other corporations.
Meanwhile, Waymo has also been involved in various accidents, including a robotaxi colliding with a bicycle at an intersection in San Francisco last February.
Reporter Park Chan cpark@aitimes.com
