- Title: Google self-driving spinoff Waymo begins testing with public in San Francisco
- Date: 24th August 2021
- Summary: SAFETY OPERATOR IN DRIVER'S SEAT STEERING WHEEL (SOUNDBITE) (English) SAM KANSARA, SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER AT WAYMO, SAYING: "Our experience in Phoenix is very critical for even our approach in San Francisco. We used all the wealth of expertise from the Early Rider program that we started in 2017 in the years of testing to finally launch our fully autonomous service last year. And that's been a great experience for us. And actually, all those learnings, all of that, all of the feedback that we've received from our riders in that market and about autonomous vehicles generally are all things that we're going to take into account and into our roadmap, even in San Francisco. And so we'll say that was the first big step. Getting the first deployment of a fully autonomous service, you know, was definitely a big milestone for us to hit. And we're very proud of it. And then we obviously hope to bring it rapidly to other markets in the future." SAFETY OPERATOR IN DRIVER'S SEAT MORE OF FRONT OF VEHICLE VIEW OUT OF THE WINDOW AS VEHICLE DRIVES VIEW OF SIDER MIRROR AS VEHICLE DRIVES
- Embargoed: 7th September 2021 17:11
- Keywords: San Francisco Waymo Waymo in San Francisco autonomous vehicles rideshares self-driving cars self-driving vehicles
- Location: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Company News Markets,Economic Events,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA006ERN27BH
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo has started taking a few San Franciscans on rides in its self-driving sport utility vehicles and hopes to open the robotaxis to anyone in the city in less than the three years it took to launch in its only other market.
Waymo's announcement on Tuesday (August 24) of its status and plans in San Francisco, a small peninsula of hills, trolleys, bicycles, and narrow streets, shows the length that remains before driverless transport becomes commonplace.
The company's all-electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs initially are serving the more residential western and southern portions of the city, including Richmond and Bernal Heights. Operators are in driver's seats with hands on their knees - but prepared to steer in an emergency.
Anybody can sign up for Waymo's ride-hailing app, though the company is hand-selecting who it picks up, with the list expected to grow gradually to hundreds of people. Waymo bars them from publicly discussing rides.
Sam Kansara, senior product manager at Waymo, acknowledged that autonomous vehicles are rolling out slower than Waymo and its many rivals had originally envisioned.
"There's a lot that remains to be done," Kansara said. "This is a step about starting to now get more information so that we can inform our roadmap."
The company wants feedback from people with different backgrounds and commuting needs. It expects many riders to weigh in on challenges with hopping on and off because of San Francisco's limited curb space and rampant double parking.
Employees riding in the city since February gave the company confidence to expand to the public, Kansara said.
Waymo last October in a first-of-its-kind deployment in the United States for the industry started allowing anyone to buy rides in its fully driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans in some Phoenix, Arizona, suburbs.
The launch followed three years of testing, but Kansara said he hopes lessons learned from that experience will bring about swifter progress in San Francisco.
(Production: Paresh Dave / Nathan Frandino / Hyunjoo Jin) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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