Waymo on Tuesday added Washington to his pioneer Robotaxi service Constant expansion list of US marketsAlthough passengers will have to wait until next year until they can take a journey without driver through the capital city of the nation.
For now, Waymo Robotaxis will continue to map Washington’s streets and halls with a security driver sitting behind the steering wheel to take control of the vehicle if something goes wrong, a precaution required under the regulations currently in force in the Columbia district.
That is something that Waymo has already been doing since he began sending his robotaxis in Washington At the end of January After a brief judgment in the capital last year.
While the robotaxis continues to learn through the city, Waymo executives expressed their confidence that they can work with regulators to clear the way for completely without driver travel at some point next year through their Waymo One application.
“We are excited to bring the comfort, consistency and security of Waymo One to Washingtonians, those who work and play in the city every day, and the millions of people around the world who travel to the district every year,”
If Waymo ambitions work, Washington and Miami next year will be added to four other US markets where their robotaxis is transporting passengers: Phoenix, Los Angeles, the area of the Bay of San Francisco and Austin, Texas, as part of an association with the Lo -Travel Change Leader. Waymo and Uber are also joining to start sending their robotaxis in Atlanta at the end of this year.
Growth has helped convert what began as a novelty that turns in the head in Phoenix and then in San Francisco at an increasingly common view in cities where Waymo operates. The company says that it had provided more than 4 million trips without driver to customers who pay until the end of this year, and now it provides them at a rate of 200,000 trips paid per week.
That has established Waymo as the first favorite in driverless technology, while others run to catch up. Both Amazon and Tesla are preparing to launch their own services in different American cities, while another transport service, Lyft, has announced plans to add Robotaxis as an option in Atlanta and Dallas.
Waymo’s early leadership in the Robotaxi market is still evident is a claim of a technology that began as a secret project within Google in 2009 before it became a separate company owned by Alphabet Inc. in 2016.
