Waymo Doubles Robotaxi Service Area In Phoenix

Waymo is doubling its commercial robotaxi service area in the Phoenix metro area to include Scottsdale, nearly all of Tempe and larger sections of Chandler and Mesa. The updated service area is 180 square miles, or about one-third of the 517-square-mile Phoenix metro area. "Importantly, it connects downtown to Arizona State University in Tempe and other East Valley suburbs," adds TechCrunch. From the report: The former Google self-driving project under Alphabet is also adding a second location that accesses the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Riders can already get to the airport by taking a Waymo robotaxi to the 44th Street Phoenix SkyTrain Station, which has frequent round-the-clock trains to the main terminals. Waymo robotaxis will now pick up and drop off passengers at the new 24th Street PHX SkyTrain Station.

A larger service area, particularly one that allows for riders to take driverless Waymo vehicles from one suburb to downtown or to the airport, is critical for the company to grow its business and generate more revenue. The expansion will also help the company scale beyond the 10,000 autonomous trips that public riders take each week in Phoenix and San Francisco combined, Waymo Chief Product Officer Saswat Panigrahi said in a media briefing. Panigrahi did not disclose what percentage of those rides were in Phoenix, where it can charge. "We're clearly excited about the trajectory we're going to be on and we believe we can hit 10x of that scale by next summer, roughly," Panigrahi said.

I'm just glad there's absolutely no chance

[rsilvergun]

Of self-driving cars taking over taxi cab services. Given that we have millions of people now making a living only by driving taxis for a living it would be a major problem if suddenly they were all out of work except on rainy days..

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[LetterRip]

Waymo's do well in light rain and fog now. Don't know if they are letting them drive independently yet but if not they probably will soon.

Not sure when they will be ready for heavy rain, ice, and snow though.

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[Ichijo]

Waymo's do well in light rain and fog now.

Are you lying or do you have proof? Because as of 3 weeks ago, they didn't work well in fog. [jalopnik.com]

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[brianwilt]

Fog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] Rain: https://twitter.com/daylenyang... [twitter.com] Things are moving quick

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[rudy_wayne]

Robocop in a robotaxi. If Hollywood had the tiniest bit of creativity that would be a movie already.

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[ShanghaiBill]

we have millions of people now making a living only by driving taxis

The purpose of employment is the production of goods and services, not "keeping people busy."

Automation doesn't cause unemployment. It expands the economy. ATMs, flushing toilets, and self-dialing phones didn't cause economic collapse, and neither will self-driving taxis.

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[ErstO]

While I totally agree and have known a number of Taxi drivers through the years, in the early 1900's every city town hamlet had one or more blacksmiths shoeing horses and keeping the wagons rolling, the AutoMoBile put most of them out of work. It's evolution and has been going on with the work force since early man figured out how to get a horse to pull his crudely made plow

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[CaptQuark]

And innovation replaced inner tubes in tires. When I was growing up every tire had an inner tube in it. There were so many spares or repairs laying about that we used them in the winter to slide down the hills. In the summer we used them to float on the lake. Now tubeless tires are on every vehicle and the only inner tubes you can find are primarily for bicycles.

So many things have been replaced. For most people a "one-horse open sleigh" is just a line in a Christmas song, not a normal method of transp

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[Virtucon]

That's the plan. The WEF says that 14M jobs in the US will be eliminated by AI over the next 5 years.

who will be changed if the next Elaine Herzberg de

[Joe_Dragon]

who will be changed if the next Elaine Herzberg death happens?

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[timeOday]

Currently most pedestrian accidents do not result in criminal charges unless there is negligence involved.

I wouldn't be too quick to go against self-driving cars, if they are done responsibly and improve safety over the status quo. As a motorcyclist, I worry a lot about getting rear-ended by somebody texting.

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[ShanghaiBill]

who will be changed if the next Elaine Herzberg death happens?

There are about ten pedestrian deaths per day in America.

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[fluffernutter]

So whats a few more as long as it isnt you? is that the implication?

Real deal

[timeOday]

It's funny how self-driving can still seem like science fiction even though they are serving up 10,000 self-driving rides per week.

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[ErstO]

I remember reading early in the program that they had to keep a human back up behind the wheel, is that still the case or are these rides with no human behind the wheel?

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[timeOday]

There is really and truly nobody behind the wheel [youtube.com]. How often they intervene remotely, I have no idea.

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[fluffernutter]

.. in a very small area relative to North America. Still waiting to see what happens when they hit roads with ice obscuring the lines and edges for half the year. Not sure how they handle narrow gravel driveways that don't show on a map.