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Waymo will begin circulating a larger group of passengers in its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, Calif. – although they will need to sign nondisclosure agreements, and there will still be a human safety driver behind the wheel. .
It’s the second city where the company has expanded its nascent self-driving vehicle offering, as Google’s sibling has been making completely driverless trips without a safety driver in parts of Phoenix, Arizona, for more than a year now. Waymo is one of a handful of companies trying to launch a commercial service built around autonomous vehicles, like Argo AI (which is backed by Ford and Volkswagen) and Cruise (which is backed by General Motors).
Waymo has been testing self-driving cars in San Francisco for a decade, dating back to when it was still just an original project within Google. And it allowed some Waymo employees to participate in the first version of the commercial AV program in San Francisco. But now people can apply through the Waymo One smartphone app to take part in what he calls the “Trusted Tester” program, which is essentially a new image of the “Early Rider” program he ran in Phoenix. (Waymo says the Early Rider program in Phoenix will also take the new name.)
Those accepted into the program will be able to ride in Waymo’s autonomous Jaguar I-Pace SUVs for free, but will have to offer feedback in return, and they will not be able to publicly share what the experience looks like. There will also be wheelchair accessible vehicles. That’s how the company started the service in Phoenix, although now anyone can get into one of their vehicles there and even film and share the experience – the warts and everything.
“From using the Waymo One app, to pickup and drop-off, to the ride itself, we receive valuable feedback from our passengers that allows us to refine our product offering as we move forward. our service, “in San Francisco, the company wrote in a blog post. “We started this program last week with a select few and are now expanding the program to all interested San Franciscans. We will start with a first group and welcome other runners in the coming weeks.
Waymo owns some 300 vehicles in Phoenix, some of which operate without a security driver. The company declined to say how many vehicles will operate under this new program in San Francisco, or how many people it will accept into the program, or when it will begin testing fully autonomous vehicles in the city.
But extending this program to a second city is a big step. Phoenix has always offered wide roads and warm, steady weather. These conditions will be more difficult to find in San Francisco, a city famous for its zigzag road and where fog is so notorious. he has his own Twitter account.
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