#163-Waymo One launches driverless rides for the public

Autonomous Cars with Marc Hoag

In a surprise move that came seemingly out of nowhere, Waymo has just opened up its Waymo One autonomous vehicle taxi services to the general public in its testing grounds just outside of Phoenix, Arizona; crucially however, these vehicles aren't just autonomous, they're driverless autonomous vehicles; i.e., Level 5 AVs.

Until now, Waymo had been testing its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans with a human backup driver in a 100 square mile (160 square kilometer) region of the suburbs of Phoenix. Now, however, they've removed the human backup driver and shrunk the geofenced region to 50 square miles (80 square kilometers).

Although the plan is to eventually re-introduce backups drivers and further broaden the coverage area, the current decision to remove the driver -- while surprising -- makes perfectly good sense during this era of the COVID pandemic. As I've often argued numerous times in the past, COVID should encourage, rather than discourage, driverless autonomous vehicles if only to maximize human safety: getting in a car with no driver is going to be safer than getting into a car with a driver.