Waymo changed the expression of autonomous driving

Waymo, an autonomous vehicle development company affiliated with Alphabet, made it clear its policy to change the expression of auto. In the future, Waymo will mark it as autonomous driving, not self-driving.

Waymo will change the expression that used to be automatic driving in the future to autonomous driving. The catchphrase (Let’s Talk Self-Driving), which has been used in autonomous driving campaigns for the past few years, is also changed (Let’s Talk Autonomous Driving).

The reason for changing the expression is to avoid conveying the wrong meaning to the consumer. In Korea, both are translated into automatic driving or autonomous driving, but if you look closely at the expression between the two words, automatic driving and autonomous driving are similar, but in the autonomous driving side, the feeling of driving only with the car itself feels strong.

Waymo pointed out through a blog that there is a risk that among autonomous car makers, there is a risk of misleading drivers and causing dangerous behavior by using words that require accuracy of automatic driving. He explained that autonomous driving is a driving assistance function for drivers, and it does not mean that drivers who are not fully automatic can take their hands off the steering wheel.

Waymo didn’t say it, but it can be said that it implicitly means Tesla. From Weimo’s point of view, he chose words more carefully than Tesla’s rash expressions. Related information can be found here .