Waymo, the autonomous driving technology company backed by Alphabet, has announced a significant milestone in its driverless taxi service. The company revealed that it now completes more than 50,000 paid, driver-free trips every week in the three major cities where it operates: Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
The Waymo One service, which operates 24/7 in parts of all three cities, has seen a growing number of passengers opting for the driverless option. Additionally, the company offers limited rides to select members of the community in Austin, Texas, as well as Los Angeles.
In a bid to expand its services, Waymo recently introduced Uber Eats deliveries in Phoenix using its autonomous cars. Partnering with select restaurants in Chandler, Tempe, and Mesa, including Princess Pita, Filiberto’s, and Bosa Donuts, customers ordering through Uber Eats can now have their meals delivered by a Waymo vehicle. Customers also have the option to request a human driver for their delivery.
Despite the popularity of Waymo vehicles, the company has faced some challenges in the communities where it operates. Incidents involving pedestrians, other vehicles, and pets have occurred. In February, one of Waymo’s vehicles was set on fire in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Additionally, rival Cruise had to temporarily halt its robotaxi service after an incident with a pedestrian. Cruise’s vehicles have since returned to the roads in Phoenix but are operating in a testing phase with a human driver behind the wheel.
However, both Waymo and Cruise will face increased competition from Tesla, as Elon Musk plans to unveil his Tesla robotaxi, known as the Cybercab, in August.
In related news, Brett Winton, Chief Futurist at Ark Investment Management, expressed his opinion that Tesla will surpass Waymo in autonomous driving capabilities. Winton highlighted Tesla’s larger dataset, with the company’s cars driving roughly 150 million miles per day with its full self-driving (FSD) system deployed, compared to Waymo’s 40,000 miles per day. Winton believes that Tesla’s extensive data will enable faster progress in achieving autonomous driving.
Tesla recently announced that its cars have driven over one billion miles with FSD software, a significant increase from the end of 2023. In contrast, Waymo had driven only over 7 million miles as of December 2023.
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