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Waymo is now offering its ride-hailing service for the public in the downtown area.
After years of testing the capabilities of a fully autonomous vehicles, company officials said they believe the technology was capable of launching their services safely.
“Trusted testers can have a ride 24 hours a day 7 days a week in our fully electric Jaguar I-PACE,” stated by Waymo on their blog.
The project titled Waymo One is now available to all customers with the Waymo app to hail a ride within Phoenix’s downtown area.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego took to twitter to say, “The future is here in Phoenix,” in regards to the launch.
This comes as Gov. Doug Ducey signed an executive order outlining the state’s process for vehicle manufacturers to conduct self-driving development in 2015, which helped Waymo begin testing in Arizona.
Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. and has of one busiest airports in world. With joint support from the city and Waymo, the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is set to become one of the few in world to provide self-driving taxis.
Waymo, formerly known as the Google Self-driving car, is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The Waymo One project started in 2009, and in 2016 began testing technology in the East Valley.
The technology works by using GPS combined with different sensors and cameras to process the car’s surroundings. These sensors can measure distance from objects, structures and people, as well as speed and helping to drive in different weather conditions. The cameras help to visualize their surrounding as well as reading traffic lights, stop signs and may prevent injuries to customers.
Apart from its availability in downtown, the cars will expand from downtown Phoenix to the 44th Street Sky Train station.
According to the Waymo app, pricing is similar to services such as Uber or Lyft.
Waymo One has a total of 700 vehicles in its fleet spanning across California and Arizona,
They are working to provide a fully autonomous vehicles for freight transportation in the U.S. titled Waymo Via. This includes their fleet of driver less local delivery vehicles which are being tested in the state.
Waymo is also expanding their fleet of Waymo One and Via to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Frank Espinoza is a recent graduate of Northern Arizona University from the beginning of 2022. He prides himself on covering topics that give a spotlight to individuals or groups who give back to the community. He has covered local sports, community events, and important issues that impact the state. In his spare time, he loves to watch Street League Skateboarding and hang out at Cowtown Skateboards in Goodyear.
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