Waymo Set to Roll Out Autonomous Taxis on Freeways in the Near Future

Alphabet-owned Waymo says it’s preparing to start offering autonomous, “rider-only” trips on freeways in Phoenix, Arizona nearly 15 years after its founding. Waymo will take a multi-phased approach to freeway testing by initially restricting rides to employees as passengers before eventually opening the service up to customers using its Waymo One ride hailing app. That relatively methodical rollout follows months of trouble for the leading autonomous vehicle (AV) competitor Cruise, who was forced to freeze all operations in California last year following a string of safety concerns.

Waymo, which already offers publicly available rides in parts of Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, explained its plans for new freeway testing in a recent blog post. The company will use what it calls a “phased approach” where it will first offer “rider-only” freeway commutes to Waymo employees in Phoenix. Employees will provide feedback on both the service and rider experience which Waymo says it will analyze before expanding rides to the wider public. Waymo did not provide any hard dates on when that expansion would occur, opting instead to say it would operate in a “step-by-step manner.” A Waymo spokesperson told PopSci that employees would begin taking these trips on freeways in Phoenix “in the coming weeks.”

“Before expanding, we ensure we have a comprehensive understanding of the environment we plan to operate and our system’s capabilities,” Waymo wrote in its blog post. “Waymo’s years of experience driving cars and trucks on freeways taught us to navigate everyday scenarios autonomously and inform our approach to responding to rare events safely.”

The company says its gradual expansion to freeway rides could drastically cut down on some commute times where AVs would previously look for alternative, non-highway routes. Those brisker ride times could help address complaints from some critics who say AV rides can be frustratingly time consuming.

Waymo released this video along with its blog post showing its vehicles approaching 65 miles per hour operating on a freeway as well as an image showing time saved when an AV used a freeway route.

Waymo’s acceleration onto freeways comes just months after GM-backed Cruise, one of the top players in the AV space, was forced to freeze operations in California. In October, multiple vehicles from Cruise’s fleet of driverless Chevrolet Bolt’s were reportedly responsible for causing lengthy, frustrating traffic jams. Around that same time, another Cruise vehicle reportedly ran over a woman and dragged her after a hit and run driver collided with the pedestrian and flung her into the AV’s path. » …
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