Waymo is hitting the accelerator on its autonomous vehicle program, rolling out driverless rides for employees starting tomorrow in a wide swath of Austin. Covering 43 square miles, including downtown and neighborhoods like Barton Hills and Hyde Park, the initiative is a leap toward releasing the tech to the Austin public.
After having clinched the right to charge for rides in Los Angeles and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, Waymo is not showing signs of slowing down. The debut of its Waymo One ride-hailing service in Texas's capital, disclosed first by TechCrunch, puts Austin on track to become the fourth city to have the company's robotaxis prowling the streets for fares. This rollout arrived on the heels of a green light from regulators, a stark contrast to the operational pause of its competitor, Cruise, which is currently grappling with investigations after a pedestrian incident.
In a statement obtained by Reuters, Waymo's product chief Saswat Panigrahi declared, "Our disciplined deployment in Texas' capital brings us one step closer to safely delivering the benefits of fully autonomous driving to many more people." Yet, despite their cautious optimism, both Waymo and Cruise have been criticized following collisions involving their vehicles and the public, including incidents with cyclists and pedestrians.
Even as industry rivals like the Ford-backed Argo AI have hit dead ends, Waymo's self-driving cars continue to push boundaries, though not entirely without mishap. Last month, a Waymo vehicle in San Francisco was involved in an accident with a cyclist, an event currently under investigation by California authorities. Moreover, episodes of aggression targeted at the machines, such as a Waymo robotaxi getting torched during San Francisco's Chinese New Year festivities, underscore the challenges that lie ahead for the acceptance of autonomous transportation.
