Waymo self-driving cars in Arizona now truly driverless
People in early rider program in Chandler area could get picked up in a minivan with nobody behind the wheel
Ryan Randazzo
Nobody is behind the wheel in some of Waymo's white minivans shuttling people around Chandler and other East Valley cities, the company announced Tuesday.
Arizona is the first global testing ground for the truly driverless cars on public roads, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said during a technology conference speech in Lisbon, Portugal.
Much like the Uber Volvos and Chevy Bolts testing autonomous technology in the Phoenix area, Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans and Lexus RX 450h vehicles have relied on a driver behind the wheel to take control when needed.
Now Waymo is removing the driver entirely for some trips, just as it has on its private testing grounds in California.
In October, the company successfully tested its driverless minivans — with employees in the back seat — on public roads in the Chandler area and plans to continue similar tests.
A video the company posted on YouTube shows the passengers in the rear seat watching as the minivans navigate Chandler streets including a school zone.
Last year, Waymo began offering free rides for families traveling in the Chandler area. Now some of the families participating in the early-rider program will find vans pulling up to their homes with nobody behind the wheel, ready to shuttle them to their errands.
"What you're seeing now marks the start of a new phase for Waymo and the history of this technology," Krafcik said in his prepared remarks.
Company officials said they eventually want to have vehicles running without drivers throughout the entire Phoenix area.
Waymo, a division of San Francisco-based Alphabet Inc. and formerly known as the Google Self Driving Car Project, has been testing its self-driving vehicles in Arizona since April 2016.
“Safety is our top priority and is at the center of everything we do," Krafcik said in a news release. "We are confident that our cars are reliable and ready to start test-driving without a test driver in the driver’s seat. Our ultimate goal is for fully self-driving car technology to deliver on its promise to improve road safety and save thousands of lives.”
The vehicles use a combination of lasers, radar and cameras to operate. Waymo officials have said that their ultimate goal is to achieve autonomy that would require no human input, giving people with impaired vision or other physical challenges that prevent them from driving the freedom of mobility.
The company also touts the improved safety on the roads with vehicles that can "see" a 360-degree field around the car even in the dark with advanced sensors.
Waymo reported in January that its cars averaged 5,000 miles between roadway obstacles that required a driver to take control and that the technology was constantly improving.
Some of Waymo's vans will continue to use an operator behind the wheel, and some of their work will include mapping new areas of the metro area where the autonomous vehicles can expand their driving.
Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny said he is proud his city has hosted the groundbreaking work.
"This research and development taking place in our community will ultimately make our roads safer and provide new freedom for those unable to drive," Tibshraeny said in a news release.
Waymo has not made any of the early-rider families available for media interviews, so it is unclear how they feel about the development. The company still is accepting applications for the early-rider program and soon will add 500 more vans to its fleet of 100 that operate in Chandler; Austin, Texas; Kirkland, Washington; and Mountain View, California.
Waymo early rider application:https://waymo.com/apply/
The company also recently announced it would test autonomous cars in winter conditions in Michigan.
But for now, Arizona will be the only place where the cars have nobody behind the wheel.
There is no requirement in state law preventing the rollout, officials said.
One of Waymo's self-driving cars was involved in a minor crash in San Francisco in 2016, but most of the accidents involving the cars, including the first three in Chandler, were the fault of other drivers, including one thought to be the first impaired driver to collide with a self-driving car.
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