Waymo Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service To Expand To All Of Phoenix

PHOENIX, AZ — Waymo, the stand-alone business unit of Google-parent Alphabet that makes driverless cars, plans to expand its autonomous, driverless passenger pickup program to all of Phoenix later this year after testing the concept in an early-passenger program limited to a specific area.

Waymo CEO made the announcement this week at Google’s I/O conference at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. In the pilot program that kicked off last year in November, Phoenix residents in a specific area can hail rides in an autonomous and driverless Chrysler Pacifica in a specific area free of charge.

The pilot program was a significant change from previous autonomous vehicle tests that had human “safety drivers” who could hop into the driver’s seat when necessary.

Waymo said that when the autonomous ride hailing service kicks into high gear later this year, the rides will no longer be free. An Uber-style app will allow them to order a driverless car, according to The Street. (Get Phoenix Patch’s real-time news alerts and free morning news letters. Like us on Facebook. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app.)

Waymo’s announcement comes amid concerns about the safety of autonomous and driverless vehicles. One of the company’s vehicles was involved in an accident about a week ago. The vehicle was in manual mode with a driver behind the wheel when the driver of another car ran a red light and hit the Waymo man.

Waymo faces competition from both Tesla and Uber, which also are developing autonomous ride hailing services. In March, Arizona Gov. Dave Ducey suspended Uber’s testing privileges after a pedestrian was killed by driverless Uber in Tempe. In that incident, the vehicle had a backup human driver, but the vehicle was in autonomous mode.

In a letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Ducey said he found a video of the fatal collision “to be disturbing and alarming,” and said it raised questions about Uber’s ability to continue testing in Arizona.

“Arizona will not tolerate any less than an unequivocal commitment to public safety,” Ducey said at the time.

In March, a Tesla vehicle operating in the driver-assisted Autopilot mode was involved in a fatal accident in California, the second such confirmed crash on U.S. roads involving Tesla’s autopilot system.

It’s unclear if Waymo will have safety drivers when the service expands later this month.

Photo via Shutterstock