Waymo said Tuesday it would expand its robotaxi service to riders in San Francisco in another step toward fully autonomous ride-hailing.

The unit of Google parent Alphabet said it would allow "trusted testers" in San Francisco to hail rides in self-driving cars with an "autonomous specialist" on board for backup.

"Our San Francisco Trusted Testers can hail autonomous rides for their everyday needs anywhere they want to go in our initial service area, whether it's their favorite bakery in the Sunset, or a special picnic spot in Golden Gate park," Waymo said in a blog post.

"We kicked off this program last week with a select few and are now expanding the program to all interested San Franciscans. We'll begin with an initial group and welcome more riders in the weeks to come."

The move expands the Waymo ride-hailing program which has been operating in Phoenix, Arizona since 2017 as rivals work to launch similar operations.

The former Google Car unit has been moving ahead of most rivals and has raised billions of dollars in anticipation of a wider launch.

The San Francisco project will use the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles equipped with the fifth-generation Waymo Driver software.

"While this is a first for San Francisco, it is a familiar step for Waymo," the blog post said.

"Since October 2020, we've served tens of thousands of fully autonomous rides, and through our years of experience, have refined our incremental approach guided by our safety framework and rider feedback."

juj-rl/dw

GOOGLE

Related Links
Car Technology at SpaceMart.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

The case for onboard carbon dioxide capture on long-range vehicles
Chicago IL (SPX) Aug 19, 2021
When people talk about how to eliminate vehicles' carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, often the conversation often focuses on electrifying cars, trucks and buses. Yet cargo and tanker ships, which are responsible for 3% of all CO2 emissions, are rarely a part of the discussion. Now a Northwestern University research team offers a practical way to make ships CO2 neutral - or even CO2 negative - with CO2-capturing solid oxide fuel cells. After "burning" traditional carbon-based fuels, the fuel cell gener ... read more