Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car subsidiary, has revealed that it will soon be able to operate its autonomous vehicles on specific sections of highways in Phoenix, Arizona. This important development will allow Waymo to reduce travel times for Waymo One passengers and continue its expansion in the United States.
Waymo is preparing to conduct tests of its self-driving passenger cars on freeways in Phoenix, a necessary next step in the deployment of its autonomous vehicles. Up until now, the cars have been avoiding expressways and favoring city streets, which has been a source of complaint from users who have noticed longer journey times due to the vehicles’ avoidance of freeways.
After accumulating several years of experience and millions of kilometers driven by its autonomous cars and trucks, Waymo has been given approval to operate on specific freeways in the Phoenix area.
In 2023, Waymo initially conducted tests with on-board supervisors as a safety measure. Now, the autonomous cars will be able to operate on freeways with only passengers on board.
In the initial phase, only Waymo employees will be able to utilize this development in order to provide the company with feedback. Later this year, all customers should be able to benefit from this advancement.
The Waymo One self-driving car-sharing service is currently available in Phoenix and San Francisco, and will soon expand to Los Angeles and Austin.
While Waymo is making progress towards its goals, there have been notable setbacks for other companies in the self-driving industry. For example, its rival Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, recently had to recall nearly 1,000 driverless taxis after a series of incidents, leading to the suspension of its operations by California authorities.
Despite occasional negative publicity for autonomous ride-hailing vehicles, Waymo is demonstrating that the technology can be both efficient and reliable. In other parts of the country, companies such as Aurora and Argo AI are also operating their own autonomous ride-hailing services, although they do not yet operate on higher-speed roads. – AFP Relaxnews
