Waymo is a California-based autonomous driving technology development company. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Google began its development of autonomous vehicle technology in 2009 at its X lab, which at the time was run by co-founder Sergey Brin.
The project was launched by Sebastian Thrun, the former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) and Anthony Levandowski. In December 2016, the unit was renamed Waymo and spun-off into a new division in Alphabet.
Waymo now operates a commercial self-driving taxi service in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area. In October 2020, it expanded the service to the public. At the time, it was the only self-driving commercial service that operates without safety backup drivers in the vehicle.
Waymo also is developing its technology for use in other vehicles, including delivery vans and Class 8 tractor-trailers for delivery and logistics.
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Waymo also has plans to expand its fully driverless robotaxi service to downtown Phoenix in the coming months.
The permits require both companies to have a safety driver present in the vehicles at all times, however.
Part of what makes Waymo’s system successful is its millions of miles of real world and simulated driving experience.
Today, Nuro announced it will be delivering with 7-Eleven in Mountain View, California, and Waymo announced its grocery delivery service to be launched in 2022.
The trucks are driving autonomously on highways between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. A human takes control once a truck exits the highway.
Waymo’s robotaxis face unique challenges driving in San Francisco, where there’s a one in three chance of fog every day.
Waymo’s vehicles will be driven manually at all times. The goal is to improve its autonomous driving technology. Waymo said “we don’t have any immediate plans to launch [a robotaxi service] in New York City.”
From cyclists riding against the flow of traffic to nudging over to let another car pass on a narrow street, watch a handful of typical events Waymo’s autonomous vehicles deal with in San Francisco.
According to Waymo, it has nothing to do with its autonomous driving technology being confused, a mapping issue, or a maneuver it’s trying to perfect.
The approval from the California DMV does, however, come with major caveats.