Alphabet’s Waymo Will Launch Driverless Car Within Two Months
The Alphabet subsidiary Waymo is planning to launch self-driving cars in early December, its CEO John Krafcik said at Wall Street Journal Tech D.LIVE. Many big businesses like Walmart are already willing to pay to shuttle their customers to stores.
The driverless car project has been in motion for more than a decade. Waymo has worked closely with Google to bring the concept into reality. At Google I/O 2018, we got a glimpse of AI self-driving cars, and now it’s soon arriving at our doorstep.
Though, not every door. Waymo is initially taking things slow with launching the service for a restricted number of consumers in the suburbs around Phoenix, which is at least 100 sq miles.
According to Bloomberg, the first wave of consumers will likely be drawn for the Early Rider Program — A program of 400 nonemployees who tested self-driving vans in Chandler, Arizona. However, this time they won’t be bonded with a non-disclosure agreement. In other words, we will come across many selfies and people accounts soon enough.
Like mentioned, Wamyo is taking things slow. At first, there will be backup drivers when it starts with the commercial program. People familiar with the matter said to Bloomberg that this will help ease consumers.
As for the pricing, Waymo will start with fares that are competitive with Uber and Lyft, two popular ride-hailing companies. However, Bloomberg says that pricing will gradually decrease as the company understands how to charge “for in-ride entertainment and advertising.”
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