Waymo is bringing its driverless cars to freeways in three major US cities and the surrounding environs. These areas include San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
The platform didn’t say how many of these vehicles have been greenlit to take to the freeway, other than noting that “a growing number of public riders” will be given access. At the very least, families will be able to play a new road trip game in which they point out cars with weird spinning LiDAR units on the roof.
The Google-owned ridesharing company says that these freeway rides can be used for daily commutes, traveling to various airports or just joyriding from, say, downtown LA to Culver City. The San Francisco service area is particularly large, stretching across the entire peninsula. The newly-expanded service goes all the way down to San Jose, including the San Jose Mineta International Airport.
Waymo
This is just the beginning of this freeway expansion, assuming everything goes well in these early phases. To that end, the platform says its vehicles have already logged “millions of miles” on freeways and that they are adept at “skillfully handling highway dynamics.”
Waymo notes that it’s planning something similar for Austin, Atlanta and other unannounced regions. It’s also bringing its driverless cars to San Diego, Detroit and Las Vegas next year, but those won’t be going on freeways just yet.
