Waymo One (self-driving taxi service)

2022: Service launches in San Francisco and Phoenix

On March 30, 2022, Alphabet announced the launch of a taxi service without Waymo drivers in San Francisco and Phoenix. The company will use autonomous vehicles to carry passengers.

In San Francisco, Waymo already operates a fleet of self-driving cars by the end of March 2022, which users can access through a mobile app. Waymo's decision to deploy fully autonomous cars in San Francisco indicates that the autopilot software has reached a high degree of reliability.

Google launches driver-free taxi service in San Francisco and Phoenix

The fully autonomous travel service will only be available to employees of Alphabet's division. Going forward, Waymo plans to make the vehicles available to consumers who will participate in its Trusted Tester program.

In Arizona, Waymo first began operating fully autonomous cars in 2020. The cars operated primarily in the Phoenix suburbs of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and Tempe. Waymo is announcing plans to expand accessibility to downtown Phoenix.

Waymo claims it is now the only company simultaneously providing fully autonomous ride-hailing services in several cities. When you consider the places where the Alphabet division's vehicles work with safety drivers on board, Waymo has already tested autonomous driving in more than a dozen states.

Before launching its ride-hailing service in the new neighborhood, Waymo will create a custom map of local roads with details such as the location of stop signs. The Alphabet division's vehicles use this map, along with data they collect with their on-board sensors, to make driving decisions. Waymo cars have already traveled more than 20 million kilometers on public roads and more than 20 billion kilometers in simulation simulators.^[1]

2021

Navigation issues in San Francisco

In mid-October 2021, it became known about the problem with Waymo self-driving cars. They arrive one by one at a dead-end street - on 15th Avenue in the Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco - for an unknown reason. Having stopped by this place, the cars stand there for a while, and then turn around and drive along a given route.

On some days, up to fifty unmanned vehicles can be counted on this street. Such an invasion causes many residents concern and some inconvenience, since sometimes cars come to the sleeping area deep at night.

I woke up to a strange hum and thought there was a spaceship outside my bedroom window, "the county resident said.

Waymo One self-driving cars arrive en masse at the same gridlock in San Francisco

A strange situation by mid-October 2021 has been observed for several weeks. Residents turned to operators in the cabin for help. They only observe the work of automation and cannot reprogram its behavior, and are also unable to explain it.

Waymo linked these maneuvers to the neighborhood of the street, which has limited vehicle traffic.

We are constantly adapting to the dynamic rules of the road in San Francisco, "says a company representative. - In this case, cars traveling north of California on 15th Avenue must make a U-turn due to the presence of Slow Streets signs on the lake. Waymo follows the same rules of the road that any vehicle is required to follow.

Waymo drones began plying the streets of San Francisco in late August 2021. Anyone can become a passenger, and free of charge. But first you need to submit an application, wait for its approval and get on the list of approved "test passengers." The size of the unmanned fleet is not specified. Jaguar I-Pace electric crossovers were chosen as the basis for robotaxis.

Trips for passengers are free, but in return users need to share vpechatle­niyami with razra­botchikami. Passengers will also be able to contact Waymo support at the touch of a key in the cabin.^[2]

Problems with bypassing traffic cones

In mid-May 2021 unmanned taxi , the company (Waymo subsidiary Google) was unable to bypass the cones placed in connection with the road work. The video of the incident was published on YouTube the JJRicks Studios channel, owned by student Joel Johnson - he regularly publishes reports on the work of robotaxis.

The self-driving taxi operated normally as long as the car had to turn right at one of the intersections. In the right lane in front of the taxi there were obstacles in the form of traffic cones - having found them, the car control program failed, and the taxi stopped. The Waymo car still failed to complete the maneuver and stopped between lanes, blocking the roadway.

Taxi without Waymo drivers proved unable to go around traffic cones

Remote control specialists failed to restore the movement of the car in a given direction. A special technical support team was sent to the scene of the incident, which is engaged in the evacuation of unmanned vehicles in difficult situations. After the arrival of taxi specialists, the movement suddenly began and the team was forced to catch up with the taxi in order to put the vehicle into manual mode.

By May 2021, Waymo's robotaxis operate at level four autonomy, meaning they can "complete all driving tasks and control the driving environment in certain circumstances." By comparison, a car with a fifth level of autonomy can independently drive a car with the same capabilities as a human driver.

Joel Johnson himself noted that the car recognized an unusual road situation, and the remote support worker gave the wrong commands. For this reason, the car could not solve the situation.^[3]

2020: Arizona State Service Launch

On October 9, 2020, it became known that Waymo was launching a taxi service promised two years earlier - completely unmanned and open to the public. Initially, the taxi service without drivers will operate on the territory of Arizona.

Waymo's decision to offer driverless rides to the general public suggests the company has no qualms about the safety of the new mode of travel. The only question now is how quickly the company can expand its services nationally and ultimately globally.

Eliminating the risks associated with passenger safety when traveling in self-driving cars is an important step towards improving the profitability of Waymo's services. Still, the company is not going to abandon remote overseers.

Waymo self-driving taxi available to everyone in Arizona

These employees never direct vehicles, however they are responsible for processing high-level instructions to help vehicles get out of difficult situations. So, if a Waymo car collides with a road closure on its way, for example, due to construction work, then it will stop and ask the operator for additional information on route selection.

Waymo operators are trained to control multiple vehicles at the same time, however, over the next months, the company intends to reduce the amount of remote monitoring required for each vehicle so that Waymo can reduce its support office costs over time.

Before the start of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, the company provided a total of 1,000 to 2,000 trips per week, from 5% to 10% of which were completely driverless. Waymo said it expects to return to about 100 driverless trips per week through the end of 2020 and then continue to increase numbers.^[4]

2019: Launch of service for all comers

In December 2019, the Waymo One unmanned taxi ordering service became available to everyone, although you can still use it only in a limited area - only in one of the districts of Phoenix.

Google posted App Store an application in the catalog that allows you to book a self-driving car for a trip around the city. All users can now download and use the program, and not just participants in the Waymo Early Rider pilot program.^[5]

In the mobile application, you can specify the destination, as well as the place from where you need to pick up a person. The cost of the trip is also displayed there and you can pay for it using a linked bank card. In addition, the application offers the ability to evaluate the quality of the trip on a 5-point scale. Previously, only users of Android devices could download the application.

Google launched robotaxis for everyone

By the beginning of December 2019, the number of regular users of the service exceeded 1.5 thousand people, and the total number of trips amounted to more than 100 thousand. The number of weekly trips between January and December 2019 tripled.

In November 2019, Waymo taxis began to drive up to customers in fully autonomous mode. Previously, during all trips driving self-driving cars, there was an employee of the company who controlled the operation of the autonomous control system. The user himself will not be able to choose a car without an insured driver, but the proprietary application will warn the person in advance that the taxi ordered will be really unmanned.

The company sent a proposal to change the requirements for vehicle equipment to the Ministry transport USA (United States Department of Transportation, DOT).

In 2020, it is planned to expand the geography of the service outside Phoenix, but so far only in the United States.^[6]

2018: Commercial service launch

In early December 2018, Google announced the launch, according to the company, of the world's first commercial self-driving taxi service. The development of such vehicles in the company is engaged in the Waymo division.

The taxi service, which can call cars without drivers, is called Waymo One. At the time of commercial launch, it operates in only four suburbs of the city of Phoenix (Arizona, USA): Chandler, Tempe, Mesu and Gilbert. It is in this region that self-driving machines have been tested since 2016. Over time, the geography of service availability will expand.

Google launched the world's first commercial taxi service without drivers

To use the services of Waymo One, first you need to download the corresponding mobile application and link a bank card to it.

The robotaxi service carries passengers in a limited 100-mile zone (160 km). A 15-minute trip along the 3-mile (4.8 km) route, ordered by Reuters reporters, cost $7.59, which is slightly more than the price of a trip by the same distance using a Lyft service car ($7.22).

In the cabin of self-propelled taxis on touch screens built into the headrests of the front seats, the route and other information are displayed. By clicking on the buttons, Waymo One customers can start a trip, contact technical support, remove the door lock or ask to stop.  Up to three adults, as well as one child, will be able to move in one car. 

It is noted that driving unmanned vehicles is not much different from traditional taxis: the former also accelerate when changing lanes, slow down in front of road irregularities and slow down at intersections.

As indicated in Google, the first Waymo One customers will include several hundred people who previously volunteered for more than a year to test the service on American roads. The service will be available to everyone in 2019.^[7]

Notes