Waymo brings its ride-hailing services to Austin, Texas

Expansion to Austin

Waymo, the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company, has announced that it will be offering its ride-hailing services in Austin, Texas. This makes Austin the fourth major city, following Metro Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, to allow Waymo’s pilot program.

Timeline

Waymo’s ride-hailing program will begin its “initial phase of operations” with fully autonomous vehicles in the fall. However, the company will wait a few months before offering rides to the public. Waymo has been conducting early tests in Austin since at least March of this year.

Market Entry

Chris Bonelli, Product Communications Manager at Waymo, stated that the company will follow a similar market entry strategy to its previous launches. This includes manual testing, supervised testing, fully autonomous testing, and finally, offering rides to the public. These phases will begin in the fall.

Service Availability

Waymo’s autonomous ride-hailing service will be available day and night in areas such as downtown Austin, Barton Hills, East Austin, Hyde Park, Riverside, and more. The decision to expand services to Austin was influenced by the city’s fast-growing economy and its dense population of nearly 2.5 million people in the metro area.

Fleet Information

Waymo has not disclosed the specific vehicle count for its planned Austin fleet.

Funding and Challenges

Since its inception in 2016, Waymo has raised at least $5.5 billion in funding, earmarking its latest round for technology advancements and team expansion. Like other companies in the self-driving space, Waymo has faced challenges in gaining adoption, including safety concerns, regulatory hurdles, and the need for more human safety drivers.

Waymo’s Strategy

Waymo’s focus has shifted from autonomous semi-truck development to autonomous ride-hailing services. The company made this decision in late July and also implemented layoffs as part of its shift in strategy.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply