Waymo is headed to the Big Apple—for initial testing, anyway.
Alphabet’s self-driving car division announced it will start mapping New York City. Starting today, Waymos will be cruising around Manhattan, going through the Lincoln Tunnel, visiting Times Square, driving by Central Park, and doing other usual New York City tourist stuff.
Note that Waymo is mapping New York City, not autonomously driving there. Safety drivers will be behind the wheel, manually controlling the vehicles at all times. The self-driving sensors will be on full blast, though, and they will scan every nook and cranny of the company’s New York City territory to create a detailed self-driving map. Once the map is built, Waymo will load the city data into a simulation to see how the “Waymo Driver” software reacts to daily life in NYC. Then the company can tweak, test, and improve its software safely.
Waymo often seems like the leader in the self-driving industry, as it’s the only company operating a public car-hailing service with nobody behind the wheel. The areas Waymo operates in are extremely limited, though, and the company’s inability or unwillingness to scale is starting to be a concern. Waymo’s main service area is Chandler, Arizona—a flat, simple, weatherless suburb of Phoenix. While you obviously want to scale your self-driving service safely, if Waymo Driver is good enough for Chandler, it should also work in similar areas. Waymo still seems to be in “learning” mode, though.
Waymo’s NYC testing area.
Credit: Waymo
Waymo’s NYC testing area. Credit: Waymo
But Waymo is still making progress. The company recently expanded to San Francisco, where it is now running a ride-hailing service for the public, albeit under an NDA-constrained “Trusted Tester” program—and with a safety driver behind the wheel. Waymo’s New York City testing doesn’t mean the company will offer a self-driving service there soon. Waymo says it has “tested in dozens of cities spanning a diverse range of climates and topographies,” but it still only offers ride-hailing in small areas in San Francisco and Chandler.