/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24825918/1257514095.jpg "Later this year, Waymo’s autonomous taxis will begin offering rides to passengers in Austin, Texas.")
Waymo’s fourth robotaxi city will be Austin, Texas. It will be a bit of a homecoming for the Alphabet-owned self-driving company.
Waymo said that it will start accepting passengers in its fully driverless vehicles in the city later this month. The company has been testing its vehicles on the streets of Austin
since March, laying the groundwork for the eventual launch of a commercial ridehailing service.
But the company’s history with the city stretches all the way back to October 2015, when Waymo gave a 10-minute ride to a blind man named Steve Mahan in its prototype Firefly vehicle, which lacked a steering wheel and pedals. The company also kept an office in the city until November 2019, when it abruptly shut it down.
Waymo said that it will start accepting passengers in its fully driverless vehicles in the city later this month
Since then, a number of other autonomous vehicle (AV) companies have descended on Austin for testing and validation. Argo AI, which was backed by Ford before shutting down last year, tested its vehicles in Austin for a number of years. And Cruise, Waymo’s primary competitor, has been testing its vehicles with passengers since late last year. Delivery robots from Refraction AI also can be found wobbling down the streets most days in the Texas capital.
Texas’ regulatory environment is more permissive than California’s, where the bulk of AV testing takes place. The state passed numerous laws related to AVs, most recently one that exempts automated vehicles from certain motor vehicle equipment laws and regulations.
Waymo says its driverless taxis will traverse “a large portion of the city night and day,” covering spots like “the heart of downtown, Barton Hills, Riverside, East Austin, Hyde Park and more.” The company makes no mention of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, where the taxi business is typically the most lucrative.
The company also noted that “autonomous vehicles help improve road safety,” a claim that sounds true on the surface but is hard to prove. Waymo has released several datasets that show its vehicles to be adept at avoiding certain collisions. But humans drive billions of miles every year — orders of magnitude more real-world driving than the comparatively tiny fleet of AVs on the road today. And while there are an unacceptable number of fatalities every year, humans are actually good drivers — for the most part.
Waymo says its driverless taxis will traverse “a large portion of the city night and day”