The US start-up Waymo plans to begin testing its fully autonomous vehicles without human safety drivers on highways in the greater San Francisco area this week, the US tech portal TechCrunch reported on Monday.
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“The company’s employees will be the first guinea pigs,” it says in the reportThe first tests will begin outside of rush hour with “less than a handful” of vehicles. The move comes at a time when Waymo, armed with an additional five billion dollar investment from parent company Alphabet, is pushing to expand its robotaxi operations in San Francisco. Just last week, Waymo added another 25 square kilometers to its robotaxi service area to include cities in the surrounding area of the Californian metropolis.
Traffic violations and investigations
Waymo operates a 24-hour robotaxi service in San Francisco, California. However, there has been tension there for some time over the autonomous vehicles. These were approved by the relevant federal authority against the resistance of the city authorities. In January, San Francisco filed a lawsuit against the federal authority that granted the approval.
Then, in early February, a Waymo vehicle hit a cyclist, who was slightly injured. A few days later, the conflict reached a new level: a crowd damaged and smeared an empty Waymo robot taxi in the middle of a busy street in San Francisco and finally set it on fire to applause.
Investigations against Waymo
An application by Waymo to expand its robotaxi operations in the counties of Los Angeles and San Mateo in the US state of California was initially stopped by the regulatory authorities – probably also due to the events described. In March, the Alphabet subsidiary was finally granted approval, including permission to charge for autonomous journeys on the highway.
But the reports of accidents and breakdowns did not stop after that. Numerous incidents involving the autonomous driving of Waymo cars on the road led to an official investigation in May. This was expanded shortly afterwards. The reason was new violations of traffic safety, such as driving in the lane of oncoming traffic, collisions with parked cars and other stationary objects, driving into unpaved construction sites and ignoring traffic rules. After an accident, the company launched a voluntary recall campaign in mid-June. The recall affects the software of the automated driving system (Automated Driver System – ADS).
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