Waymo is opening its fully driverless service to the general public in Phoenix

Beginning October 8, Waymo has started fully driverless offering to Waymo One riders.

Members of the public service can now take friends and family along on their rides and share their experience with the world.

In the near term, 100% of rides will be fully driverless.

Waymo has been hard at work to bring the Waymo Driver to more and more people. In 2017, it began early rider program in the Metro Phoenix area with the next generation of our technology, using the full-size hybrid Chrysler Pacifica. This 4th-generation Waymo Driver was significantly more sophisticated than Firefly’s technology, and for the last year, has pioneered fully driverless, paid rides on high-speed roads across a service area larger than the city of San Francisco.

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 rider services in Metro Phoenix

Waymo paused rider services for the past few months due to COVID-19 out of an abundance of caution. After careful consideration, extensive conversations with our partners, riders, teams, as well as local and state authorities, and after implementing a series of enhanced safety protocols, it has now resumed our Waymo One ride hailing service in Metro Phoenix.

 rider services in Metro Phoenix

Waymo is resuming rider services step-by-step, offering a limited number of fully driverless rides through early rider program and for the first time, in our public service. It will continue gradually scaling it’s capacity over time.

https://waymo.com/waymo-one/

Waymo sensors and software scan constantly for objects around the vehicle—pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles, road work, obstructions—and continuously read traffic controls, from traffic light color and railroad crossing gates to temporary stop signs. It’s vehicles can see up to three football fields away in every direction.

It’s software predicts the movements of everything around it based on their speed and trajectory. It understands that a vehicle will move differently than a cyclist or pedestrian. The software then uses that information to predict the many possible paths that other road users may take.

Based on all this information, Waymo software determines the exact trajectory, speed, lane, and steering maneuvers needed to progress along this route safely.