Antonio Manaytay – Fourth Estate Contributor
Mountain View, CA, United States (4E) – Waymo’s most-hyped safest and advanced self-driving cars hit the road with no one in the driver’s seat except Waymo. The multiple test drives on public roads came after about eight years of research and development to unleash the power of fully autonomous cars.
The company, one of the companies who are into development of self-driving technology like Google, Tesla, and host of many others, had its self-driving vehicles operating on public roads with a technician at the wheel.
It claimed to have the first self-driving car in the world two years ago with legally blind Steve Mahan as its passenger. The Mahan ride, from the park to his doctor’s office, gave the world a first glimpse of how future cars would be – autonomous, less stressful, and generally people-friendly regardless of physical conditions.
Waymo, in a statement, said, its fully autonomous vehicles are in the Phoenix metro region eyeing for the greater area of coverage and more vehicles. The company has the most record in terms of public roads autonomous miles, about 3.5 million miles, in 20 US cities.
The company vehicles, according to Waymo, were subjected to rigid and thorough tests drives in about 20,000 scenarios involving rare and difficult instances. These difficult realities of driving were captured in simulation software running for more than 10 million miles daily.
With fully autonomous vehicles, the company is looking at the full range of applicability that includes ride-hailing, logistics, public transport, and private vehicles.
The company has been “exploring each of these areas, with a focus on shared mobility.”
“By giving people access to a fleet of vehicles, rather than starting with personal ownership model, more people will be able to experience this technology,” the company statement said.
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