Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
Author | The Way
Edit | Juice
According to foreign media reports, Waymo recently began to open the Robotaxi (self-driving taxi) service without security officers to its San Francisco employees, while continuing to promote the service to downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
It is understood that in the past six months, Waymo has obtained the deployment and commercial license of the Robotaxi service in California, where San Francisco belongs, and officially trial-operated the Robotaxi service near San Francisco, providing customers with fee-based Robotaxi services in the case of security personnel.
In order to continuously improve the self-driving technology, Waymo continues to conduct Robotaxi tests in Arizona and San Francisco, and in addition to The Waymo employees are testing, it also opens various Types of Robotaxi service tests to some members of the public.
After the opening of Robotaxi services without security officers, Waymo may continue to expand the objects and scope of the opening, laying the foundation for the commercialization of Robotaxi services without security officers.
1. Permissioned Robotaxi, a non-security officer, is temporarily open to employees
In the past six months, Waymo has successively obtained two licenses to provide Robotaxi services to California passengers, namely the RobotTaxi Deployment License and the RobotTaxi Commercial License. Among them, the RoboTaxi deployment license allows Waymo to provide RoboTaxi services to passengers without security officers for free.
For now, Waymo is only offering its San Francisco employees a free RoboTaxi service without a security officer, after which Waymo will expand the scope of the service.
In September 2021, Waymo received a Robotaxi deployment license from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to provide Robotaxi services with security officers to passengers in California, but not for a fee. Until the license is granted, Waymo can only test its Robotaxi service in the city.
By March 1, 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) had issued a Robotaxi commercial license to Waymo and its rival Cruise, allowing both companies to charge passenger fees after providing Robotaxi services, provided they had security officers.
In addition, the "driving deployment" license also allows both companies to provide Robotaxi services without security officers at no charge. For now, Waymo is temporarily opening up its RoboTaxi service without security officers to its San Francisco employees. Arguably, the "drive deploy" license paves the way for Waymo's Rollotaxi service launched in San Francisco.
It is understood that riding Waymo's RoboTaxi is as convenient as Uber. Passengers can use the Waymo One app to call Waymo's Robotaxi Jaguar I-Pace SUV. After the vehicle arrives and is seated, passengers can start the trip by simply pressing the "Start Trip" button on the touchscreen.
At the same time, the monitors on the back seat of each vehicle can also display the vehicle's perception system in real time, and passengers can learn more deeply through the monitors what Robotaxi "sees" when it uses cameras, radar and lidar to navigate autonomously in the city.
In addition, passengers can use the parking button in case they need to shorten their trip. If a passenger presses the stop button, Waymo's Robotaxi will stop in a safe position and wait for the passenger to leave.
▲Waymo self-driving taxi
Second, the two places opened the service test, and tens of thousands of people enthusiastically signed up
For the past few years, Waymo has been testing its Robotaxi service in suburban Phoenix, Arizona, in preparation for the launch of its Waymo One app and Robotaxi service in San Francisco.
It is understood that back in 2017, Waymo began launching driverless taxis equipped with security officers in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, but only for users who have signed a confidentiality agreement and have been vetted.
In October 2019, Waymo removed Robotaxi's safety officers and began conducting fully driverless tests. By October 2020, Waymo was piloting a few RoboTaxi without security officers in Phoenix. It can be said that Waymo has achieved a stage lead and victory in completely unmanned driving. Next, Waymo will expand its services to downtown Phoenix.
In San Francisco, Waymo has been promoting The Robotaxi service in the past two years after a long period of testing and a long wait, and after obtaining the relevant operating licenses.
In addition to offering a fee-based Robotaxi service with a security officer and a roboTaxi with a free security officer for employees, Waymo has created a waitlist for people who want to ride on robotaxi whose security officer does not. Last December, Waymo's head said "tens of thousands" of people had signed up.
In addition, Waymo invites interested San Francisco residents to download the Waymo One app and participate in the test. After that, these people can continuously provide valuable feedback to help Waymo improve the Robotaxi service without security officers.
▲ Waymo One app
Conclusion: Waymo helps commercialize robotaxi services without security officers
Waymo's Robotaxi-free roboTaxi service in San Francisco is also iconic, marking the first time Waymo has operated a Robotaxi service in multiple cities at the same time, in preparation for further commercialization.
In the future, Waymo will combine the experience of San Francisco and Phoenix East Valley, based on millions of miles of real driving miles, and spend billions of dollars in simulation miles, to help it further improve its self-driving technology hardware and system software, open up the RoboTaxi service without safety officers on a larger scale, and promote its large-scale commercialization.