The post Waymo has begun fully driverless freeway rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix with no human backup appeared com. Waymo has started running fully driverless robotaxis on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, with no human backup inside, becoming the first company in the U. S. to do so. Beginning Wednesday, the Alphabet-owned firm said the service is available 24/7, but only to selected riders who’ve opted in to their new features. The move, according to a statement from the company, is part of a gradual rollout that will stretch across its existing urban service areas. This is the first time any company in the U. S. is offering commercial, highway-level rides with no safety driver in the vehicle. While traditional cabs and rideshare companies like Uber operate freely on freeways, Waymo’s robotaxis had until now stayed off them. The company confirmed that by removing that restriction, passengers could now take shorter, faster trips, without having to reroute around highways. Waymo goes driverless on highways as Tesla, others lag behind Unlike Waymo, rival U. S. firms are still sticking with safety monitors. Tesla, for example, recently launched limited self-driving cab services in Austin that include some freeway routes, but every ride still includes a human in the driver’s seat. For surface street trips, Tesla keeps a monitor in the front passenger seat. Chief Executive Elon Musk also said the company is testing a custom-built robotaxi called Cybercab, which he claims will enter production by April. Outside of the United States, WeRide, a China-based robotaxi company, already offers highway rides in Abu Dhabi. But all of their vehicles still include safety drivers. Waymo, which is based in Mountain View, California, is using the same core sensor system and software for freeway driving that it developed for its urban operations. The company said it trained its cars for freeway conditions using both closed-course testing and simulations, with a focus on unpredictable events,.
