Enlarge / One of Waymo’s Jaguar I-Paces on the streets of San Francisco. (credit: Waymo) Waymo rides in San Francisco will start costing money soon, according to TechCrunch. The robotaxi spinoff from Alphabet has obtained a necessary permit from the California Public Utilities Commission that allows it to charge customers for their trips, something that […]
Enlarge / A Cruise robotaxi test vehicle in San Francisco. (credit: Cruise) The autonomous vehicle developers Cruise and Waymo both got a little closer to running true driverless robotaxi services in and around San Francisco. In May, both Waymo and Cruise applied to the Ca Department of Motor Vehicles for deployment permits (as opposed to […]
Enlarge / Will Waymo’s autonomous truck honk its horn for little kids on the freeway? (credit: Waymo) On Thursday morning, Waymo announced that it is working with trucking company JB Hunt to autonomously haul cargo loads in Texas. Class 8 JB Hunt trucks equipped with the autonomous driving software and hardware system called Waymo Driver […]
Enlarge / One of Waymo’s sensor-studded Jaguar I-Paces observes a pedestrian crossing the road in front of it. (credit: Waymo) The day when robotaxis roam the streets of San Francisco looking for fare-paying customers is getting closer. This week, Reuters reported that both Waymo and Cruise have applied to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles for […]
Enlarge (credit: Sundry Photography / Getty Images) Last October, Waymo did something remarkable: the company launched a fully driverless commercial taxi service called Waymo One. Customers in a 50-square-mile corner of suburban Phoenix can now use their smartphones to hail a Chrysler Pacifica minivan with no one in the driver’s seat. And then… nothing. Seven […]
Enlarge (credit: Emanuel M Schwermer) The self-driving technology industry is in a strange state right now. A number of companies have been pouring millions of dollars into self-driving technology for years, and many of them have prototype self-driving vehicles that seem to work. Yet I know of only one company—Waymo—that has launched a fully driverless […]
Enlarge / Waymo CEO John Krafcik in 2017. (credit: Misha Friedman/Bloomberg via Getty Images) John Krafcik, the former auto industry exec who took over Google’s self-driving car project in 2015, is stepping down as CEO of Waymo. Waymo, which spun off as a separate Alphabet subsidiary in 2016, accomplished a lot during Krafcik’s five-and-a-half-year tenure. […]
Enlarge / A Waymo self-driving car in Silicon Valley in 2019. (credit: Sundry Photography / Getty) A police report obtained by the Phoenix New Times this week reveals a minor Waymo-related crash that occurred last October but hadn’t been publicly reported until now. Here’s how the New Times describes the incident: A white Waymo minivan […]
Enlarge / Waymo CEO John Krafcik speaks in 2018. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Many Tesla fans view the electric carmaker as a world leader in self-driving technology. CEO Elon Musk himself has repeatedly claimed that the company is less than two years away from perfecting fully self-driving technology. But in an interview with Germany’s Manager […]
Enlarge / Anthony Levandowski exits federal court in San Jose, California, on August 27, 2019. (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) On his final full day in office, Donald Trump pardoned Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of Waymo’s epic 2017 trade secret battle with Uber. Last year, Levandowski pleaded guilty to stealing a […]