Waymo’s driverless vehicles are picking up passengers in downtown Phoenix - The Verge

Waymo’s fully driverless vehicles are now available to a select group of passengers in downtown Phoenix, a more dense and complex service area for the company’s autonomous cars.

Waymo’s fully driverless vehicles are picking up passengers in downtown Phoenix, five months after the Alphabet-owned company expanded its service area to include denser, more complex areas of the city.

Waymo has been testing its vehicles in several suburban towns outside of Phoenix since early 2017, including Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, and Gilbert. It also operates a commercial ride-hailing service called Waymo One using a mix of vehicles with and without safety drivers. The company expanded its service area to include downtown Phoenix earlier this year.

Last year, the company launched its Trusted Tester program, which is basically a rebranding of the early rider program it ran in suburban Phoenix. Customers interested in using Waymo’s robotaxis join a wait list and, once approved, sign nondisclosure agreements to get access to the company’s early technology.

Those individuals are now able to ride in Waymo’s fully driverless vehicles in downtown Phoenix. One of the first riders to experience these “rider only” vehicles was Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, who said in a video produced by Waymo that she hopes the service will make Phoenix a “more inclusive city.”

Eventually, the service will grow to include regular customers who are free to speak publicly (and post on social media) about their experiences using Waymo’s autonomous vehicles — just as they do in the suburban towns outside of Phoenix. That can result in some embarrassing headlines, such as when a driverless Waymo van got stuck at an intersection in Chandler, prompting the company to send a roadside assistance team to come extract it.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/29/23323593/waymo-driverless-vehicles-passengers-downtown-phoenix

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