Waymo on Tuesday added Washington to its Robotaxi pioneer service, the ever -expanding list of markets in the United States, although passengers will have to wait until next year until they can ride around the country’s capital.
So far, Waymo’s Robotaxis will continue to map the streets and corridors of Washington with a safety driver sitting behind the wheel to take control of the vehicle, if something goes wrong – a precaution required by the provisions currently in force in Colombia.
This is something Waymo is already doing as he began sending his robotaxis to Washington in late January after a brief experience in the capital last year.
While Robotaxis continues to learn their way around the city, Waymo leaders have expressed confidence that they will be able to work with the regulators to clear the road to the drivers without drivers at some point next year through their Waymo One app.
“We are excited to bring the comfort, consistency and safety of Washingtonians, those who work and play in the city every day, and millions of people from all over the world every year,” co-executive director of Waymo Tekedra Mawakana.
If Waymo’s ambitions appear, Washington and Miami will be added to four other markets in the United States next year, where her robotaxis transports passengers-Penix, Los Angeles, the area of San Francisco and Austin Bay, Texas, as part of a partnership with the leader of the Uber ride. Waymo and Uber also come together to start sending their robotaxis to Atlanta later this year.
Growth has helped to turn what started as a novelty of head rotation in Phoenix, and then in San Francisco in an increasingly common view in the cities where Waymo works. The company says it has provided more than 4 million vehicles without a customer payment driver by the end of this year and is now providing them at 200,000 paid trips a week.
This created Waymo as an early gable in driver -free technology while others compete to catch up. Both Amazon and Tesla are preparing to put their own services in different cities in the United States, while another ride service, Lyft, has announced plans to add Robotaxis as an option in Atlanta and Dallas.
The early lead of Waymo in the still -born Robotaxi market is a revenge for a technology that started as a secret project in Google in 2009 before being transferred to a separate company owned by Alphabet Inc. In 2016
