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

Trump says he would withdraw troops but leave intelligence officers in Afghanistan

(July 3) Trump said Monday that he would like to have a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan but wants to leave a "strong intelligence" there a number of intelligence officers. He called Afghanistan the "Harvard of terrorists".

US and Taliban negotiating a deal for US withdrawal

The US is in ongoing talks with the Taliban on a peace deal that would see the US withdraw all its troops from the country a Taliban precondition for any agreement. In return for the withdrawal the Taliban would promise not to allow ISIS and Al Qaeda to stay within Afghanistan.

Mike Pompeo has already confirmed that the US has agreed to withdraw but only as part of a completed agreed upon plan as reported in a recent Digital Journal article: "We've made clear to the Taliban that we're prepared to remove our forces. I want to be clear, we've not yet agreed on a timeline to do so."

As discussed in a recent Digital Journal article , Pompeo said: "We've made clear to the Taliban that we're prepared to remove our forces. I want to be clear, we've not yet agreed on a timeline to do so."

Recent peace talks attempt to set a firm timetable for US withdrawal.

Trump says US needs to watch the country

It is not clear how the US would place their intelligence agents in the country without an occupation force. No doubt they could be part of embassy staff but if the Taliban knew they were spying they could very well be ejected.

It is not evident that this issue has been discussed in negotiations with the Taliban. If it has not it could very well cause difficulties in the negotiations. If the US insists on such a condition it could very well jeopardize the success of the talks.

Trump has long been interested in US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Trump has long expressed interest in pulling out of Afghanistan, though some in the administration have been keen to keep troops in the country, and many in Congress have expressed discomfort with the idea of the war, the longest in US history, ever ending.

The Taliban have refused to negotiate with members of the Afghan government which they consider a puppet of the US. However , a recent article in the Digital Journal indicates there have been fresh attempts to bring the Afghans into the process.

Previously published in the Digital Journal