Waymo, the self-driving company under Alphabet, has started testing it robotaxis in Atlanta on Tuesday, adding another city to its ever-expanding test and deployment domain.
Over the next few months, Waymo will deploy several vehicles driven manually by humans to gather mapping data and familiarize themselves with Atlanta’s environment, Sandy Karp, a Waymo spokeswoman, said. said to TechCrunch. Later, Waymo sought to test its robotaxis in Atlanta without the safety driver in the front seat.
Like many other states, Georgia’s regulation of AVs is almost non-existent, meaning Waymo could technically put fully autonomous vehicles on the road today without a safety driver, if it could. -ot the state’s least dangerous condition.
Waymo declined to comment on whether it plans to launch commercially in Atlanta, or any other cities where it has begun collecting mapping data. Earlier this month, Waymo began mapping Washington, DC, and in November 2023, the company began testing robotaxis in winter in Buffalo.
“We are laser focused on scaling our fully autonomous Waymo A ride-hailing service in the cities where we operate, as we continue to safely and responsibly advance our autonomous technology through road trips to in different cities around the US,” Karp said.
Atlanta is just the latest in a string of territory wins for Waymo over the past few months. Just last week, Waymo has officially launched paying robotaxi rides in Los Angeles. In March, California regulators approved Waymo to expand its commercial robotaxi service across the San Francisco peninsula and San Francisco’s freeways, opening a route to San Francisco International Airport. Waymo has been offering rides to and from the Phoenix airport since November 2022, and recently expanded to include curbside drop-off and pickup.
Waymo also began providing driverless rides to employees in Austin in March and plans to open the service to members of the public later this year.
Waymo’s recent gains are reminiscent of its former competitor Cruise’s increased activity last year. By August 2023, Cruise announced the first data collection in Atlanta, along with Seattle, Washington DC, Las Vegas and other cities. Cruise has also begun testing its robotaxis in Austin, Houston, Dallas and Miami and is operating a limited robotaxis service in Phoenix.
Cruise’s expansion plans came to an abrupt halt after an October 2 incident in San Francisco led to suspended permits and a decision to ground its entire fleet. (The California Department of Motor Vehicles tells us that Cruise is in the process of trying to get its permits in the state.)
It’s important to note that Waymo and Cruise are not the same. Cruise is facing scrutiny for its robotaxis malfunctioning on public roads, blocking the flow of traffic, public transit and first responders. Waymo is known as a company that moves slowly and breaks little things, but the company and its technology are not without flaws.
In February, Waymo recalled the software that powers its robotaxi fleet after two vehicles collided with the same towed pickup truck in Phoenix in December. A Waymo robotaxi also hit and killed a dog in June 2023.