Waymo autonomy launches for-real in Arizona

Google’s autonomous vehicle (AV) division is commencing a trial on Phoenix, Arizona streets transporting the public with no human involvement.

Waymo chief executive John Krafcik told a Portugese web summit that in a few months its human-free test vehicles will begin moving people autonomously, Automotive News reports.

“Since the beginning of this year, our early riders have been using our fleet, with a test driver at the wheel, to go to work, school, soccer practice and more,” Krafcik says.

“What you’re seeing now marks the start of a new phase for Waymo and the history of this technology.”

Krafcik explains that the autonomous vehicles can operate in Phoenix without pre-set routes or third-party help, and can legally do so because Arizona law no longer mandates AVs have a supervising driver as of mid-October.

Waymo has also revealed a user interface that includes rows of buttons for starting a trip, stopping the vehicle and calling for help while screens show journey routes and display 360-degree camera vision.

Since early 2017, Waymo has run a self-driving ride-hail test pilot in Chandler, Arizona which they hope to expand to a 1554km-squared area by early 2018.

“Having more people experience fully self-driving vehicles early is valuable,” Krafcik continues.

“It will let us learn about how people want to use this technology, and those insights will inform our future work.”

Lyft, Avis and AutoNation have partnered with Waymo in the past 12 months, along with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles which has given 100 Chrysler Pacifica people-movers to the project for retrofitting with autonomous hardware.

Waymo’s AV technology has driven 5.6 million kilometres on real-world roads since 2009.