Waymo News

Viewpoint: The Race to Build Self-Driving Trucks Has Four Horses and Three Jockeys

Over the last five years, as it’s become clear that self-driving cars will take longer than expected to arrive on most American streets, some of the biggest players in the industry have turned their attention to long-haul trucking. Alphabet Inc.’s …

Alphabet’s Waymo Says Its Tech Would Avoid Fatal Human Crashes

The autonomous-car artificial intelligence from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo avoided or mitigated crashes in most of a set of virtually recreated fatal accidents, according to a white paper the company published Monday. The simulations were based on 72 fatal crashes that …

U.S. Exempts Self-Driving Vehicles From Some Crash Standards

The outgoing Trump administration said on Thursday it was issuing new rules that would allow manufacturers of automated vehicles to bypass some crash standards required of conventional vehicles, which would cut production costs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said …

Tesla’s Release of New ‘Self-Driving’ Software Closely Watched by U.S. Regulator

The U.S. auto safety regulator on Thursday said it was closely watching Tesla Inc’s release of a software version intended to allow its cars to drive themselves, saying it stood ready to protect the public against safety risks. Tesla on …

Waymo Opens Driverless Robo-Taxi Service to the Public in Phoenix

DETROIT — Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of autonomous vehicle research into a revenue-producing business. Waymo, the self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google …

Michigan Is Developing a 40-Mile+ Driverless Car Corridor

Michigan announced an initiative to explore development of a more than 40-mile stretch of road dedicated to connected and autonomous vehicles between the cities of Ann Arbor and Detroit. The project will be led by Cavnue, a subsidiary of Sidewalk …

Putting Autonomous Driving Back on the Road

The self-driving car was a dream deferred even before the Covid-19 outbreak brought the U.S. economy to a standstill. By early 2020, plans to launch robotaxi services had been pushed back or scaled down as excitement over driverless cars gave …

Calif. DMV Approves Test of Autonomous Deliveries

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday authorized autonomous technology startup Nuro to test two driverless delivery vehicles in nine cities, a decision that comes as coronavirus concerns lock down many in the state. U.S. companies that deliver groceries, household …

Alphabet’s Waymo Raises $2.25 Billion For Driverless Cars

Waymo raised $2.25 billion from a slate of private equity investors, venture capitalists and automotive companies, the first time Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous vehicle unit has taken outside funds. Silver Lake Management LLC, a private equity firm, led the round, which …

California Releases Autonomous Mileage Reports Car Makers Love to Hate

Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors-backed Cruise saw their autonomous vehicles require less help from human drivers on California’s public roads in 2019. Waymo drove 13,219 miles on average before a human safety driver had to take control of the vehicle …