The Alphabet unit for its own management, Waymo, announced on Wednesday that it plans to continue autonomous vehicle testing in New York next month as part of its wider efforts to expand operations in the United States. This step comes in the middle of intensive competition in the robotaxi space, with Tesla also preparing to start limited attempts at an autonomous taxi service in Austin in Texas.
Testing with human specialists in Manhattan
Waymo submitted an application to the Ministry of Transport in New York to start testing a small fleet of autonomous vehicles in Manhattan. Initially, these vehicles will be manually driven, with a trained specialist behind the wheel, as required by local regulations. If approved, deployment would mean the first sanctioned autonomous vehicle testing in New York on public roads.
“This is not an expansion, but we intend to bring our fully autonomous horseback service to the city,” Waymo said in his statement.
State law in New York is currently prohibiting the operation of autonomous vehicles without a human driver present. Waymo confirmed that it advocates a change in this law to eventually allow fully operations without a driver in the state.
Return to a well -known land
The upcoming return of Waymo to Manhattan monitors his earlier presence in the city in 2021, when he performed manual control and data collection to train his own drive systems. The company considers the dense, complex urban environment in New York to be critical testing under the development of its technology.
Expansion on the west coast
In parallel with its plans in New York Waymo, it also expands its operating track in California. The company began to introduce autonomous riding services in more areas of the San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Last month he received regulatory consent to increase his coverage in the state.
Waymo adds new service zones in cities, including Brisbane, South San Francisco, Millbrae and Burlingame, and expanding in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and other parts of Los Angeles. Although it ensured approval in San Jose, it has not yet announced when the service will be launched.
Commercial robotax
Waymo remains the only American company operating the commercial service Robotaxi with paying passengers. With a fleet with more than 1,500 vehicles, the company currently operates more than 250,000 rides a week across large cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, Phoenix in Arizona and Austin, Texas.
The renewed Waymo activity and the upcoming Tesla test signal accelerate the momentum in the American autonomous vehicle industry, with both companies aimed at shaping the future of urban mobility through scalable, without driving drivers.
(tagstotranslate) Waymo
