6.10-Driverless Launched-030818

SmartDrivingCars-6.11-Waymo Launches Driverless-031318
11th edition of the 6th year of SmartDrivingCars

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Waymo shows of what it is like to ride in a truly driverless self-driving car

G. Kumparak, Mar 13, “Just a few weeks back, Waymo got the thumbs up to start testing its self-driving cars in Arizona without the need for a human “safety net” behind the wheel.

Wonder what it’s like to ride in one? This morning at SXSW, the company released a video showing off the experience had by the first few riders.

The folks in the video up above are part of Waymo’s “Early Rider” program — in other words, folks who opted in to riding without a safety driver. Waymo CEO John Krafcik said that around 20,000 people around Phoenix, Arizona had signed up…..” Read more Hmmmm… This is REALLY big news.This marks the real beginning of on-demand mobility provided by vehicles without a driver or an attendant on-board. Only the passengers and the vehicles used normal public roadways that operated in a normal everyday manner while being also used by conventional cars and trucks. N0o Waymo attendant, no police escorts, no warning signs, just normal everyday operating conditions. Except for the one trip given to Steve Mahan in November 2015 in Austin Texas, this is the First Time that it kind of mobility service has been delivered to the normal trip makers anywhere in the world.

Waymo has achieved 5 million vehicle miles of Self-driving (automated driving on normally operating public roadway; however, with a driver/attendant in the car ready to take over should the automated system begin to fail). Many others including Uber, Lyft/Aptiv, GM/Cruise, nVIDIA, Apple, Tesla, Nissan and many others have also done many miles of Self-driving on normal roads but each an everyone had a driver/attendant in the vehicle ready to “save the day” should something go bad. Nobody else anywhere in the world is doing what Waymo is now doing in Chandler AZ.

Now that the first one has been launched, any community that is similar to Chandler AZ can now think seriously about inviting Waymo to provide affordable on-demand mobility to everyone in its community. Be sure to see the video.

In 2013 Larry, Chris and Anthony announced at the AV conference that google would do this in 4 years. This isn’t 2017 anymore, but they weren’t very far off.

Congratulations John, Josh and the whole Waymo team!!!! Alain

Smart Driving Cars Podcast Episode 28

Episode 28: Waymo does it! Episode 28 of the Smart Driving Cars podcast with Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and tech journalist Fred Fishkin. Waymo begins truly driverless vehicle pick ups in Arizona. No attendant or monitor on board. And the latest on Lyft. Tune in and subscribe!
Hmmmm…. Now you can just say “Alexa, play the Smart Driving Cars podcast!” . Ditto with Siri, and GooglePlay. Alain

Real information every week. Lively discussions with the people who are shaping the future of SmartDrivingCars. Want to become a sustaining sponsor and help us grow the SmartDrivingCars newsletter and podcast? Contact Alain Kornhauser at alaink@princeton.edu! Alain