Waymo Test Runs Driverless Taxis in LA


In a test of Google’s Waymo driverless vehicle, robo-taxis are hitting the streets of Los Angeles.

After a “rigorous round of validation and safety preparedness evaluation,” Dmitri Dolgov, the CEO of Waymo, said on Twitter on Monday that the Waymo One service was prepared for the next step.

During their test runs in Arizona and California last month, the company’s autonomous vehicles reportedly covered more than one million kilometers. During that time period, two occurrences were reported as being serious enough for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to track.

Image source: www.wired.com

While 18 more minor events were reported, the NHTSA did not consider them significant enough to follow. According to the company’s data, while the majority of collisions involving human-operated vehicles occurred at intersections or involved cyclists and pedestrians, none of the events involving autonomous vehicles did.

“Comparing the performance of the Waymo Driver to human driving over time is a key safety evaluation method that can provide additional validation of the results,” the company wrote in a blog post.