We’ve talked a lot about Cruise’s so far ill-fated attempt to do robotaxi service, mostly because it was briefly available in Houston (and may be again soon), but the most successful purveyor of such services out there has been Waymo. And they keep growing.
Waymo is now providing more than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S., according to a LinkedIn announcement by co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. That’s double the 50,000 weekly paid trips the company reported in May.
A spokesperson for the Alphabet-owned driverless vehicle venture told CNBC on Tuesday that San Francisco now “serves the most trips” among the cities where Waymo operates its commercial service: San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin and Los Angeles.
Last month, Alphabet announced that it was investing an additional $5 billion into Waymo, which started as a self-driving project at the company in 2009.
On Monday, Waymo revealed details about its new, “generation 6” self-driving system, which should enable the company to offer driverless services in a wider array of weather conditions and without requiring as many costly cameras and sensors in its vehicles.
Waymo, which boasts around 700 vehicles in its fleet today, operates the only commercial robotaxi service in the U.S., Waymo One.
They’re mostly in the San Francisco area and Phoenix, but as that Monday story notes, they’re looking to expand.
Alphabet-owned Waymo revealed details about its newest “generation 6” self-driving technology on Monday. Its new driverless tech, integrated into Geely Zeekr electric vehicles, should be able to handle a wider array of weather conditions without requiring as many costly cameras and sensors on board.
The company invited CNBC to its Mountain View, California, garage to see the new robotaxis in development. Satish Jeyachandran, Waymo’s vice president of engineering, said the team is “confident we can bring this generation to market much faster than the prior generation,” citing advances in machine learning technology and semiconductor performance.
Waymo’s commercial robotaxi service first went live in late 2018 in the U.S. The company previously integrated its driverless systems into Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans and fully electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs.
Executives are sharing details about the forthcoming robotaxis as Waymo works to scale its existing service, Waymo One, within the Sunbelt cities of San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles.
Waymo has been testing in Austin and offering ride-booking services since March. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation into their vehicles in May, over “reports that the company’s cars caused traffic problems, including crashes, in a number of cities”. That appears to still be ongoing. No current indication of when actual robotaxi service would come to Austin, but you can get on the waitlist now, if that’s your thing. I’m perfectly happy to let other cities do the beta testing here. Let us know when and if it’s ready for prime time.