Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving technology company, is significantly expanding its footprint across the United States, announcing the start of autonomous vehicle testing in Philadelphia. The company also revealed plans to begin manual driving operations to collect essential data in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh, marking a major push for its robotaxi services.
While autonomous testing with a safety monitor is underway in Philadelphia, Waymo has not yet provided a timeline for the commercial launch of its robotaxi services in these new locations. The Alphabet-owned company may also explore partnerships, similar to its collaborations with Uber in cities like Atlanta and Austin, to facilitate its robotaxi rollout. These four cities join a growing list of over 20 urban areas where Waymo is actively operating, preparing for commercial launches, or conducting tests. The company recently expanded its services to include freeway rides in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area, aiming for an ambitious target of one million rides per week by the end of 2026.
Waymo asserts that its autonomous vehicles operate at a safety level five times greater than human drivers, a claim supported by data the company recently released. However, this rapid expansion has not been without its challenges. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently investigating Waymo's vehicle operations, particularly concerning their interactions with school buses. This probe follows an incident in September where a Waymo robotaxi was filmed driving around a stopped school bus in Atlanta.
Further concerns were raised this week when Austin news outlet KXAN published a report detailing multiple instances of Waymo vehicles illegally passing school buses that were actively loading or unloading children. These incidents reportedly occurred even after Waymo claimed to have deployed software updates to resolve the problem.
