Waymo decides to join California's autonomous vehicle passemger program

Waymo to join California's autonomous vehicle passenger program

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BY KEN HANLY     JUL 3, 2019 IN TECHNOLOGY

Google parent company Alphabet's driverless vehicle startup Waymo has been given a permit by the California Public Utilities Commission to participate in the state's autonomous vehicle passenger service program.

Three other companies are in the program

For the purpose of California's new program, riders cannot be charged for the tripand a safety driver must be behind the wheel at all times. Three other companies, Zoox, Autox Technologies and Ponyai are also in the project. The permit will be good for three years.

The program is separate from the state's autonomous vehicle testing program. That program has granted more than 60 companies permits from the Department of Motor Vehicles to test self-driving cars in the state.

No date for Waymo commercial ride hailing in California

Waymo already launched commercial ride hailing of autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona late in 2018. As a Verge article of December 5, 2018 announced: "Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Alphabet, launched its first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service here in the Phoenix suburbs on Wednesday — a momentous moment for the former Google self-driving project that has been working on the technology for almost a decade."

The Phoenix service serves about 400 test riders. Waymo also struck a deal with Lyft that allowed the ride-hailing company to add ten autonomous Waymo minivans to its Phoenix platform.

For now, the California operation will only give rides to Waymo employees and their guests within a limited service area in South Bay neighborhoods.

A spokesperson for Waymo said:“This is the next step on our path to eventually expand and offer more Californians opportunities to access our self-driving technology, just as we have gradually done with Waymo One in Metro Phoenix."

Waymo is the first company granted permission to operate fully driverless vehicles with no human backup drivers on public roads in California. No other company has been given permission to conduct fully driverless testing in the state. Waymo has already driven autonomous driverless vehicles about 1.3 million miles on California roads according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Previously published in the Digital Journal

In Phoenix Arizona Lyft customers will soon be able to hail a Waymo self-driving minivan

(May 8) Lyft customers in the Phoenix Arizona area will soon be able to hail a Waymo self-driving minivan for a ride, the company announced yesterday. This is the culmination of a partnership that began almost exactly two years ago.

Development represents an advance for ride-hailing and autonomous vehicles

In the beginning only 10 minivans will be available on Lyft's haling app in a handful of suburbs around Phoenix. Lyft riders will have the option on their app of selecting a ride in a Waymo self-driving vehicle. However, there will be safety drivers behind the wheel. Even though the development appears limited it nevertheless represents a significant advance for both the development of ride-hailing but also of self-driving vehicles.

Lyft is also facilitating trips in the tech company Aptiv's self-driving cars in Las Vegas. Waymo, a spinoff from Google or Alphabet has been mapping streets in Phoenix suburbs for two year now and is seen as having some of the best autonomous driving technology available at present.

Development announced two years back

The Waymo Lyft partnership was announced last May 18 with Waymo saying: “We’re looking forward to working with Lyft to explore new self-driving products that will make our roads safer and transportation more accessible. Lyft’s vision and commitment to improving the way cities move will help Waymo’s self-driving technology reach more people, in more places.”

Lyft's statement at the time also made positive promises: “We can confirm that we are partnering with Waymo to safely and responsibly launch self-driving vehicle pilots. Waymo holds today’s best self-driving technology, and collaborating with them will accelerate our shared vision of improving lives with the world’s best transportation.”

Other Waymo self-driving hailing projects in the Phoenix area

Waymo is already running two projects in the Phoenix area. Waymo One has carried over 1,000 riders to school, work, or shoppers. Secondly, it has an early rider program that requires participants to sign a nondisclosure agreement before they can experience riding in some of the company's latest updates. Waymo One is only available to these former early riders but there is no nondisclosure agreement required.

Terms of the new agreement were not revealed

No one knows how Waymo and Lyft are sharing fares or dealing with customer service issues. In 2017 Alphabet's (Google) invested $ 1 billion in Lyft. The new deal will allow those not involved in its early rider program to participate for the first time.

Waymo CEO, John Krafcik said: “This first step in our partnership will allow us to introduce the Waymo Driver to Lyft users, enabling them to take what for many will be their first ride in a self-driving vehicle.We’re committed to continuously improving our customer experience, and our partnership with Lyft will also give our teams the opportunity to collect valuable feedback.”

Previously  published in the Digital Journal

An optimistic view of when autonomous vehicles will be widely available is a decade

While areas such as Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley are actively researching the development of autonomous vehicles, they are not likely to be seen actually carrying passengers or be released for sale for years to come.

How long will it take for release of autonomous vehicles?

Even an optimistic assessment puts general use of the vehicles at ten years. Some even think it will be decades. There are numerous obstacles facing the development of the vehicles.

Vehicles already operate in limited well laid out areas within cities. Their use will spread out from these areas. The fatal accident of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona last March damaged public perception of the safety of the vehicles. As a result research became more careful. Although in the Uber crash that car was in self-driving mode there was also a driver in the car as well. The accident may have been in part caused by the actions of the cyclist victim.

Google's Waymo, as an example of safety measures taken after the crash, decided it would not launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area. For now it is using human backup drivers in the service. Here are some of the problems researchers face.

Snow and weather

When snow becomes deep enough to cover the lane markings that the vehicle's cameras rely on to find their way, the vehicle cannot determine where it is in a lane very well. So far researchers have found no solution to this problem. This is why most research is being done in places with a warm climate such as Arizona or California.

Heavy snow, rain, fog and even sandstorms block the view of cameras that the vehicle use for sensing where it is. Light beams sent out by laser sensors can bounce off snowflakes mistaking them for obstacles. Although radar can penetrate the weather it cannot perceive shapes necessary for computers to decide what an object is.

Software is being developed that can differentiate real obstacles from heavy rain, snowflakes, fog and other conditions.

Pavement lines and curbs

From place to place markings on roadways vary and on many roads do not even exist. Even when there are lane lines they are not standardized. Vehicles must learn how to drive differently in various cities, countries, and conditions.

In addition to these problems, on many roads there are no curbs by which vehicles can judge lane width.

Dealing with human drivers

Human don't always obey the rules of the road. Autonomous vehicles are often not equipped to deal with the situation. Humans often double part for example. In Pittsburgh recently, an Argo self-driving vehicle stopped during a right hand turn and was blocking an intersection as the AI could not decide whether to go around a double-parked delivery truck. Fortunately the vehicle had a backup driver.

Some humans do not like autonomous vehicles. In Phoenix people have been reported harassing Waymo's autonomous test vehicles. Police in suburban Chandler have documented at least 21 instances in the past two years, and one includes a man who waived a gun at a Waymo van, and others in which tires were slashed and rocks thrown at vehicles. A jeep forced vans off the road six times.

Left turns

In places where there is no green arrow, it is often problematic for autonomous vehicles to decide if it is safe to turn left. Even humans find this a bit of a challenge. Waymo CEO John Krafcik said: "I think the things that humans have challenges with, we're challenged with as well."

Public acceptance of autonomous vehicles

Many people fear riding in autonomous vehicles and many others fear being on the road with them or worry as pedestrians or cyclists. Recently AAA found that fully 73 percent of Americans are too fearful to drive in an autonomous vehicle. This is up from just 63 percent in late 2017.

However Krafcik from Waymo pointed out that the more people ride the more they trust the vehicles. Passengers in the test vehicles are shown information on screens about where vehicles are headed and what their sensors are seeing. Krafcik said over time people looked less at the screens and were on their phones or even sleeping.

Cost

On website Quora, plant engineer Justin Culmo notes: "Price: will be the biggest inhibitor of adoption. Self-driving will only be in higher-end cars for a long time, and better versions (levels of autonomy) will come out, first, in the more expensive cars."

Culmo predicts that driving enthusiasts will stay away from self-driving cars. Many people will still treasure driving around in their older cars and sportscars. No doubt many will trust driving their own cars over riding in an autonomous vehicle.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Waymo to add Jaguar's electric SUV to its fleet of self-driving taxis

Google's Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover have inked a deal that will add tens of thousands of the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUV's to Waymo's growing fleet of self-driving taxis.

The I-Pace SUV will be for those who want a high-end ride while Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica vans will be more of a regular people mover. People will pay a premium for riding in the Jaguars.

EV I-Pace models built as EVs from the start not retrofitted

The first prototype I-Pace fitted with Waymo's self-driving technology will be ready for public road testing by the end of 2018. It will officially become a part of Waymo's ride-hailing service beginning in 2020. Engineers from Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)) will work together to build the cars to be self-driving from the start rather than retrofitting cars that come off the line.

Over the longer term. the two companies say they plan to build up to 20,000 vehicles just in the first two years of production. The goal is to serve 1 million trips a day.

The present situation

Waymo now has about 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans in its fleet. Some of them are used to shuttle people around as part of its Early Rider program in Arizona. The vans are not purely electrical but plug-in hybrids fitted out with Waymo's hardware and software. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Waymo co-staff a facility in Michigan where they engineered the vehicles.

As well as the minivans, Waymo also owns a fleet of Lexus RX SUVs that are being phased out. The egg-shaped "Firefly" prototype was phased out last year.

The Jaguar I-Pace will be a higher performance, higher end companion to the more utilitarian Pacifica vans. The I-Pace when it debuted immediately appeared as competitors to Tesla's Model X 75D and Model S but thousands of dollars cheaper. It has a roomy anterior, luxury accent, and an impressive range and horsepower.

I-Pace addition could challenge GM's Cruise

GM Cruise LLC usually referred to a just Cruise or Cruise Automation is a US autonomous car company with headquarters in San Francisco California. The company was founded by Kyle Vogt and Daniel Kan in 2013 but was sold to GM in March 2016 for an undisclosed amount anywhere from more than $500 million to over $1 billion.

Cruise is currently testing 100s of self-driving Chev Bolts both in San Francisco and Arizona. Cruise hopes to launch a commercial taxi service by 2019.

GM sees the future of cars as both autonomous and electric with nothing else. Other companies such as Ford are also embracing hybrid autonomous vehicles as part of its strategy. Waymo too will have both plug-in hybrid Pacificas and the all electric I-Paces within its fleet.

Several cities should soon have commercial. self-driving cars

Waymo plans to start its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Phoenix later this year. However, it also has test vehicles in Michigan, and also on the road in San Francisco., Washington State and Atlanta Georgia. John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo said that the company would announce its second commercial outlet later this year.

The addition of JLR into partnership could mean that the UK could also be targeted for the service.

JLR has also partnered with Lyft

Jaguar_Land_Rover (JLR) is a multinational automotive manufacturer with headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, the UK and now a subsidiary of the giant Indian company Tata. Jaguar and Land Rover were bought from Ford by Tata in 2008. On January 1 of 2013 the two firms were merged into JLR.

Lyft is an on-demand transportation service with headquarters in San Francisco California. It has its own transportation mobile app. The service launched in 2012 and now operates in 300 US cities and expanded into Canada last year. It provides over one million rides a day.

JLR has invested $25 million in Lyft to support the company's autonomous and connected vehicle research. JLR will test Lyft's platform on JLR's vehicles. Waymo also has a separate partnership with Lyft.

Recent fatal crash in Arizona causing some concern

There was a recent fatal crash involving an Uber autonomous vehicle in Tempe Arizona. The car had a safety driver. Uber temporarily halted its driver testing program. The governor of Arizona suspended the company from further testing in the state. The Tempe police and US National Transportation Safety board are both investigating the incident.

Waymo continues on with its projects undeterred by concerns some other companies such as Toyota have had. Toyota has paused its self-driving tests. However, Waymo is continuing as it tries to become a leader in the field and take advantage of what is likely to be a very lucrative market.

Published previously in Digital Journal

California and Arizona compete to attract tests of autonomous vehicles

Both Arizona and California appear anxious to allow fully autonomous cars to be tested on their public roads as both have issued orders allowing such tests.

Arizona's regulations

Waymo, a Google-owned autonomous car developer is already showcasing its driverless Pacifica minivans as reported in a recent Digital Journal article.

On Thursday Arizona governor Doug Ducey issued a new executive order making what is already happening official, allowing fully autonomous cars to operate on public roads with no safety driver. The vehicles must follow all existing traffic laws and rules for cars and drivers.

Ducey initially issued his order in 2015, and since then, Uber, Waymo, General Motors and Intel have been testing self-driving cars on public roads in Arizona. Waymo even does so with no driver behind the wheel of the robot cars. Waymo hopes to start its ride-sharing operation this year.

Ducey said: “As technology advances, our policies and priorities must adapt to remain competitive in today’s economy. This executive order embraces new technologies by creating an environment that supports autonomous vehicle innovation and maintains a focus on public safety.”

There are already 600 self-driving cars operating on public roads in Arizona. Not only Waymo is testing the cars but Intel as well. Also, Uber and GM are testing their cars near Scottsdale. The white minivans are a common site in Chandler and also in Phoenix. Uber's grey SUV's can be seen around Arizona State University. GM's white cars are mostly seen around south Scottsdale.

Kevin Beisty, deputy director for policy at the Arizona Department of Transportation said at a public forum that Arizona prided itself as "being part of the innovation and trying to stay out of the way of innovation".

California allows testing as well

The Ducey announcement comes just a few days after California announced that it would let fully autonomous vehicles on public roads in April. Previous tests on public roads required a safety driver be in all cars.

Arizona regulations are fewer than those of California. In California testers are required to get a permit, and must submit annual reports on software disengagements. In contrast Arizona requires no public disclosures of these.

Uber had an argument with California over its regulations last year which prompted them to move their tests to Arizona

Previously published in Digital Journal

Driverless minivans seen in Phoenix Arizona

In Phoenix Arizona Waymo owned by Google that is developing driverless cars released a video showing one of its driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans as part of a pubic education campaign to raise awareness about the new technology.

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Waymo to develop robot taxi service in Phoenix

Waymo is preparing for the debut of a commercial robot taxi service in Phoenix and the video was part of a campaign to educate the public about the driverless vehicles. To some. the idea of a driverless vehicle is a bit frightening.

The Arizona Department of Transportation recently gave Waymo permission to operate as a transportation network in the state.

The video goes into detail on the many sensors used by the minivan and their range. The sensors include LIDAR that measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. Passengers can watch data displayed on a screen.

A report last year said that the vehicles had trouble making left turns. However, in the video, the vans make several left turns with no problem so the issue must have been solved.

Waymo claims that nothing was edited for the videos. There was a person in the car for filming purposes but no safety driver.

Waymo's advertising campaign

Waymo partnered with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Safety Council in its ad campaign.

Waymo also announced that its autonomous vehicles had now racked up one million miles over six years on public roads but in another six months that had risen to 4 million miles. In just the last 3 months it reached 5 million miles.

Waymo

Waymo is an autonomous car development company and subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. It was formed in December of 2016 as separate from Google. Waymo stands for "Way forward in mobility". Executives said its mission was to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around.

In 2017 WayMo announced it had formed a partnership with Intel to develop autonomous driving technology. In November of the same year Waymo announced it had begun testing autonomous vehicles without any safety driver.

Waymo competing with Uber

Uber has long feared that Waymo intends to operate its own ride-hailing business. Since last April Waymo has been testing its self-driving vans that will let customers hail cars through an app that is similar to the one used by Uber the San Francisco based ride-sharing business that hopes to set up a similar service. Rides in the WayMo vans are currently free but ultimately WayMo will no doubt charge for the rides.

Previously published in Digital Journal