Waymo, a company you have passively heard is actually a company which focuses on self-driving cars. Previously known to be Google and after a restructuring, Waymo emerged. You might also have heard about them as they are currently in a legal battle with Uber over LIDAR technology which was allegedly stolen by an ex-employee.
Anyway, I digest, recently Waymo’s CEO has published a blog post offering people a chance to sign up on their early rider program.
“We want as many people as possible to experience our technology, and we want to bring self-driving cars to more communities sooner. So in addition to our early rider program, today we’re announcing that we’re adding another 500 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to our fleet. This is on top of the 100 self-driving Pacifica minivans that we began putting on public roads earlier this year, and it represents a six-fold increase in our fleet.” – John Krafcik, CEO, Waymo.
This is in additional to already a handful of families who are enjoying the free service offered by Waymo. The in use is a minivan, specifically targeting families.
Over the last eight years, we’ve been focused on the technology behind our self-driving cars: racking up millions of miles of experience, teaching our cars advanced driving skills, and improving the performance of our software. Now, with this program, we’re turning our attention to the people who will benefit from this technology: people like Ted, Candace, and their kids, who will be using our self-driving cars in their daily lives. We’ll learn things like where people want to go in a self-driving car, how they communicate with our vehicles, and what information and controls they want to see inside.
