This is where the rubber really hit the road.
At a web summit in Lisbon Waymo chief executive John Krafcik announced that some of its fleet in Phoenix Arizona will operate in fully autonomous mode without a driver.
"Starting now, Waymo's fully self-driving vehicles are test-driving on public roads without anyone in the driver's seat."
Waymo vehicles have logged more than 3.5 million miles of autonomous driving on US roads, according to the company.
Waymo employees will be the first to test the fully automated rides.
The company plans to eventually launch a driverless on-demand ride service, potentially eliminating the need for car ownership in the long term.
"Over the next few months, we'll be inviting members of the public to take trips in our fully self-driving vehicles," Waymo said.
The full story is here:
And so it begins...
Interesting research by Rand corporation flags changes in the way people should be looking at automated vehicle introduction.
The normal and very public view is that the technology is far from perfect and needs years of testing before peoples lives are put at risk.
Rand turns that around completely.
They argue that 37,000 people die on the road in the US each year, mostly through human error.
The researchers found that introducing autonomous vehicles when they are just better than human drivers—as opposed to nearly perfect—could save hundreds of thousands of lives over 30 years.
If we wait for perfect the road toll will continue to climb.
The interesting full story is here:
As I am writing this over a period of time and as the whim takes me, then new news breaks.
Today Uber announced that it wants to buy 24,000 autonomous vehicles from Volvo for delivery between 2019 and 2021.
Where they will be used and if they have the legislation in place to make this work at the time will make this interesting.
If it does work within that time frame then the world will be in for a major shakeup that will make the evolution of the Internet look like childs play.
Let the games begin.
