Waymo to begin offering freeway rides in self-driving cars
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Waymo is taking the on-ramp to the freeway.
Why it matters: The self-driving car company has kept its robotaxis exclusively on urban and suburban roads until now.
Driving the news: Waymo announced Wednesday morning that it will begin offering autonomous freeway rides — without a safety driver — to certain paid riders in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
- The San Francisco Bay Area service area will also be expanded to encompass San Jose, including autonomous curbside service to and from San Jose Mineta International Airport.
The big picture: Waymo executives said they've spent more than a year testing their vehicles on freeways — with employees and their guests riding along — to ensure they're ready to begin this new chapter of autonomous ride-hailing service for the public.
- It's "one of those things that's very easy to learn but very hard to master when we're talking about full autonomy without a human driver as a backup and at scale," Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov told reporters. "So it took time to do it properly with a strong focus on system safety and reliability."
Zoom in: Waymo showed reporters video of its vehicles handling "extraordinary" circumstances in freeway driving tests, including hydroplaning vehicles, flooding and animals running across the road.
- "We've had to look at all of these different cases," Waymo principal software engineer Pierre Kreitmann told reporters. "We've studied them deeply and made sure the Waymo driver can handle them all."
State of play: The move comes as autonomous vehicle competition is heating up.
- Tesla this summer began providing ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas. CEO Elon Musk said last week that he's "100% confident that we can solve unsupervised full self-driving at a safety level much greater than human" driving.
- General Motors last month announced plans to deliver an "eyes-off" self-driving system for personal vehicles beginning in 2028.
What's next: Waymo users can express interest in freeway rides via the ride-hailing app.
- "We're gradually going to expand our service and our riders over time," Waymo product manager Pablo Abad told reporters.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note Waymo's CEO referred to full autonomy (not economy) without a human driver.
