Waymo begins testing self-driving taxis for the general public

Waymo, a self-driving car development company under Alphabet, started the official service of Waymo One, a fully self-driving taxi, in Phoenix, Arizona in October 2020 and is receiving high praise. Waymo is working to expand the Waymo One service area, and it began general-purpose test drives in San Francisco on August 24, 2021.

Waymo One, a fully autonomous taxi, started official service in Phoenix in October 2020. The users who used the Waymo One received favorable reviews that the driving was smooth as they did not know that the computer was driving, and there were also opinions that they were too cautious in scenes with pedestrians nearby.

Afterwards, Waymo began test driving its autonomous vehicle in San Francisco in February 2021. According to Waymo, San Francisco has a variety of road conditions, including small side streets, highways, car lanes and tram tracks, and the roads are crowded with pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, emergency vehicles, and trains. To cope with these San Francisco road conditions, Waymo says it has improved both hardware and software.

On August 24th, it was announced that the new Waymo One Trusted Tester would be launched in San Francisco. The program can be ridden by self-driving vehicles based on the Jaguar electric vehicle I-PACE, and wheelchair users can also participate. When a person approaches an autonomous vehicle, the vehicle monitor displays the location of the person. In the lower left corner of the monitor, a button to stop the car and a button to contact support are also displayed.

In addition, in the official service that has already started in Phoenix, completely unmanned driving without a driver is being performed, but in this program, a driver with Waymo One expertise will ride with you. Related information can be found here.