Waymo’s Robotaxi Fleet Drives 500,000th Mile Without Driver
Since October 2020, Waymo has been offering a robotic taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, where passengers are transported without a driver on board. Some passengers have posted countless videos of it, such as J.J. Ricks. Waymo has also been operating in San Francisco for a few weeks, but so far still with a safety driver in the vehicle.
Now Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov has announced a major milestone. 800,000 kilometers (500,000 miles) the Waymos in Phoenix have traveled driverless, day and night, since they began in October 2020. That’s more kilometers than most people drive a vehicle in their lifetime.
Dolgov also pointed out that this experience is important for bringing Waymo’s robotaxi service to other regions. What those might be are open to speculation, but New York could be one such region. New types of vehicles are also expected to be used. If Fiat Chrysler Pacifica minivans are currently in use in Phoenix, it’s primarily the all-electric Jaguar iPace in San Francisco. And Waymo recently unveiled a new type of vehicle that will no longer have a steering wheel.
This article was also published in German.
