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Late last year, Waymo received a driverless license from California, bringing the Alphabet-owned brand one step closer to launching a self-driving taxi service in the state. Now, Waymo has already expanded its service area and announced plans to begin testing self-driving cars in Los Angeles. The company told Engadget that the test is the first time a fully self-driving car has driven through his city of LA, and thanks to the successful test in San Francisco, the new city will see self-driving drivers “almost… No onboard engineering work.”
However, that doesn’t mean the company is ready to launch a Waymo One taxi service in California. The LA test could follow the same course as his Waymo fleet in San Francisco. A limited number of vehicles available only to riders in the Waymo Research Trusted Tester program. Waymo didn’t have details to share about when a fully self-driving taxi service will be available to customers in Los Angeles, but it’s likely that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will give the company a driverless license. It depends on issuing Until this final legal hurdle is cleared, Waymo’s toll taxi service will remain exclusive to Phoenix, Arizona. So far, GM’s Cruise his robo-taxis service is the only company allowed to charge for self-driving cars in the state, as long as they’re done during the day.
Following a rigorous cycle of verification and safety assessment, @Waymo We are starting to test fully autonomous (no human drivers) in LA. We’re excited about the data confirming how well ML-based Gen 5 drivers can generalize across cities! pic.twitter.com/hd0XU5zecT
— Dmitri Dolgov (@dmitri_dolgov) February 27, 2023
Waymo has not revealed a specific date when testing will begin, but it does say that the fifth-generation Jaguar I-Pace car will begin rider-only testing in Santa Monica and only during non-rush hours. The program is then extended according to his Waymo safety framework and finally delivered to consumers. Oh, and if you’re worried that cars are making traffic in Los Angeles even worse, the company promises to continually update its self-driving software to keep traffic jams out of the way.
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