Waymo gets $5.6bn further investment

Google’s driverless car sister company Waymo has closed its latest investment round, raising $5.6 billion (£4.3 billion), led by its parent company Alphabet, with continued participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek,  Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price. It says that, with this latest investment, it will continue to welcome more riders into […]

Waymo publishes data suggesting its robotaxis are almost four times safer than humans

According to its new safety data hub, Waymo robotaxis have now completed around 22 million miles of autonomous driving rides. In Phoenix and San Francisco, where 21 million of those miles were driven autonomously, injury-reported-crash rates are almost four times lower than with human drivers. Waymo is the first robotaxi service that offers transparent data […]

Better than humans? New website to show Waymo AVs are “world’s most trusted” drivers

Waymo has launched a new website that highlights the safety record of its fleet of 600 autonomous vehicles in California and Arizona. The “road safety data hub” details Waymo’s history of collisions over the past four years and the number of driverless miles traveled across its current three markets: San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, says NBC […]

Latest Waymo robotaxi to have fewer sensors to save costs

Waymo has previewed its new sixth-generation robotaxi, an electric minivan manufactured by the Chinese automaker Zeekr. In a blog post, Waymo VP of engineering Satish Jeyachandran touts the new robotaxi as more high tech than past iterations, while also featuring fewer sensors to help reduce costs for the Alphabet-owned company, says The Verge. And within […]

Waymo to begin driverless testing on San Francisco’s freeways

Google’s driverless vehicle sister company Waymo plans to start testing its fully autonomous vehicles with no human safety driver on freeways in the San Francisco Bay Area this week. The website Tech Crunch reports that Waymo employees will use the vehicles, and initial testing will start outside rush hour with “less than a handful” of […]

Google “going all-in” on self-driving vehicles

Google-parent Alphabet is going all-in on autonomous vehicles, committing up to $5 billion to fund its Waymo unit as the startup continues to test its driverless cars across the US. “I’m really pleased with the progress Waymo is making, a real leader in the space and getting rave reviews from users,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during […]

Phoenix: Bodycam captures driverless Waymo being pulled over by police

An autonomous Waymo car has been pulled over by police in Phoenix, Arizona and the incident on 18 June was caught on body camera after the officer observed the vehicle ‘going haywire’ in traffic. “I couldn’t help but come over here just out of morbid curiosity. I thought maybe there was a passenger,” a passerby said to […]

San Francisco: No more waiting list for Waymo’s self-driving taxis available

Waymo’s self-driving taxis are now available for everyone in San Francisco. The company, owned by Google parent Alphabet, hailed the breakthrough as a “key milestone” in its effort to scale its operations. Until now, says IoT World Today, anyone wishing to ride in Waymo’s autonomous Jaguar I-Pace SUVs in the city had to sign up […]

Wayve set to take on US AV tech giants

British autonomous vehicle firm Wayve has announced that it is hiring staff who would be responsible for “supervising and directing a team of drivers and safety operators, and overseasing on-road experimentation and development” based out of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area. The London-based driverless vehicle oioneers are planning to put cars on […]

“A big deal”: Waymo’s 50,000 autonomous ride-hailing trips per week

Waymo recently announced on X that it now provides 50,000 paid autonomous ride-hailing trips per week in three cities, and one of these is relatively new. This is undoubtedly a proof point that its autonomous ride-hailing services (ARS) are a viable and safe technology that is being accepted in the marketplace, says Seeking Alpha. Waymo recently announced […]

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