Waymo has announced a driverless taxi service called Waymo One, but it will only be usable for around 400 preapproved "early riders" in the Phoenix metro area, rather than the general public. While self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans will be used, they will continue to retain a safety driver behind the wheel.
Waymo's "new" service could be described as a launch in name only:
The banner Waymo is unfurling, though, is tattered by caveats. Waymo One will only be available to the 400 or so people already enrolled in Waymo's early rider program, which has been running in the calm, sunny Phoenix suburb of Chandler for about 18 months. (They can bring guests with them and have been freed from non-disclosure agreements that kept them from publicly discussing their experiences.) More glaringly, the cars will have a human behind the wheel, there to take control in case the car does something it shouldn't.
So no, this is not the anyone-can-ride, let-the-robot-drive experience Waymo and its competitors have been promising for years. Building a reliably safe system has proven far harder than just about everyone anticipated and its cars aren't ready to drive without human oversight. But Waymo promised to launch a commercial service sometime in 2018, it didn't want to miss its deadline and risk its reputation as the leader of the industry it essentially created, and not even the might of Waymo parent company Alphabet can delay the end of the calendar year.
So Waymo is pushing out a software update, tweaking its branding, and calling it a launch.
Also at Reuters, Gizmodo, The Atlantic, and Ars Technica.
See also: Waymo's driverless cars on the road: Cautious, clunky, impressive
Previously: Google/Waymo Self-Driving Minivan Tested with the Public in Phoenix AZ
Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Walmart and Waymo to Trial Driverless Shuttle Service in Phoenix for Grocery Pickups
Google's Waymo Plans to Launch a Self-Driving Car Service in December (the service falls short of what is described in this November article)
Related Stories
An Anonymous Coward writes:
Waymo plans to add another 500 minivans to the ones they already have wired for autonomous operation and let selected customers in the Phoenix area use them. Story found at this link, http://www.automotivetestingtechnologyinternational.com/news.php?NewsID=85295
These vehicles have already been tested on public roads by employees and contractors. The latest trials will enable the company to obtain data on how people experience and use self-driving vehicles.
Waymo is looking for participants from a range of backgrounds with different transportation needs. Initial users will be able to book minivans using a mobile app.
“We’re at the point when it’s really important to find how real people, outside the Google environment, will use this technology. Our goal is that they will use this for all their transportation needs,” said John Krafcik, Waymo CEO.
Krafcik seems to be another one of the anointed ones out of Detroit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Krafcik See for example the meteoric ride (and eventual crash landing) of John Z. DeLorean...
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/30/16948356/waymo-google-fiat-chrysler-pacfica-minivan-self-driving
Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, has reached a deal with one of Detroit's Big Three automakers to dramatically expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced today that it would supply "thousands" of additional Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, with the first deliveries starting at the end of 2018.
Neither Waymo nor FCA would disclose the specific number of vehicles that were bought, nor the amount of money that was trading hands. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan starts at $39,995. A thousand minivans would cost $40 million, so this was at the very least an eight-figure deal.
Waymo currently has 600 of FCA's minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle real people around for its Early Rider program in Arizona. The first 100 were delivered when the partnership was announced in May 2016, and an additional 500 were delivered in 2017. The minivans are plug-in hybrid variants with Waymo's self-driving hardware and software built in. The companies co-staff a facility in Michigan, near FCA's US headquarters, to engineer the vehicles. The company also owns a fleet of self-driving Lexus RX SUVs that is has been phasing out in favor of the new minivans. (The cute "Firefly" prototypes were also phased out last year.)
Also at Ars Technica and Bloomberg.
Previously: Apple Expands Self-Driving Fleet From 3 to 27 Cars
Walmart To Test Self-Driving Cars For Grocery Pickup Service
The future is here and soon it will be toting grocery shoppers around Phoenix. Walmart and Waymo — formerly Google's self-driving car project — announced on Wednesday the launch of a pilot program that will allow consumers to make their grocery pickups with the help of an autonomous vehicle.
The plan is simple. Participants in Waymo's "early riders" program will be able to take a driverless shuttle service to and from Walmart whenever they purchase groceries from Walmart.com using the retailer's online grocery pickup service.
Current "early riders" will receive incentives to participate in the pilot and the rides will be provided with no additional cost, Molly Blakeman, a Walmart spokesperson, said in an email to NPR. "Since the pilot is part of our Grocery Pickup program, personal shoppers pick customers' orders and bring them right out to the car ... in this case a Waymo self-driving car," she said.
Related: Google/Waymo Announces Testing of Self-Driving Trucks in Atlanta, Georgia
Waymo to Start First Driverless Car Service Next Month
In just a few weeks, humanity may take its first paid ride into the age of driverless cars. Waymo, the secretive subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., is planning to launch the world's first commercial driverless car service in early December, according to a person familiar with the plans. It will operate under a new brand and compete directly with Uber and Lyft.
Waymo is keeping the new name a closely guarded secret until the formal announcement, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven't been made public.
"Waymo has been working on self-driving technology for nearly a decade, with safety at the core of everything we do," the company said in an emailed statement. A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment on the name of the new service or timing of the launch.
It's a big milestone for self-driving cars, but it won't exactly be a "flip-the-switch" moment. Waymo isn't planning a splashy media event, and the service won't be appearing in an app store anytime soon, according to the person familiar with the program. Instead, things will start small—perhaps dozens or hundreds of authorized riders in the suburbs around Phoenix, covering about 100 square miles.
The first wave of customers will likely draw from Waymo's Early Rider Program—a test group of 400 volunteer families who have been riding Waymos for more than a year. The customers who move to the new service will be released from their non-disclosure agreements, which means they'll be free to talk about it, snap selfies, and take friends or even members of the media along for rides. New customers in the Phoenix area will be gradually phased in as Waymo adds more vehicles to its fleet to ensure a balance of supply and demand.
Related: Google Waymo Vehicles to Hit the Road This Month
Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Walmart and Waymo to Trial Driverless Shuttle Service in Phoenix for Grocery Pickups
Waymo announces major expansion in Michigan, the cradle of the US auto industry
Waymo is expanding its presence in Michigan, the state synonymous with the US auto industry. The Google self-driving spinoff announced Tuesday that its plan to build a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing center and hire up to 400 employees over the next five years was just approved by the state's economic development corporation. It's a sign that Waymo is interested in gaining more control over its production process as it seeks to grow its business of deploying autonomous vehicles.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation approved an $8 million incentive to Waymo to build its manufacturing plant in the state, The Detroit News reported. Under the deal, Waymo agrees to create a minimum of 100 new jobs in the state, but would receive the $8 million incentive only if it exceeds that minimum and creates up to 400 jobs. Total investment in the facility will be $13.6 million, MEDC says.
[...] In a blog post, Waymo said it would look to hire engineers, operations experts, and fleet coordinators. "This will be the world's first factory 100%-dedicated to the mass production of [Level 4] autonomous vehicles," the company said.
Also at TechCrunch.
Previously: Google's Waymo Plans to Launch a Self-Driving Car Service in December
Waymo Announces Limited Debut of "Driverless" Taxi Service in Phoenix, AZ
Everyone in Silicon Valley knows the story of Xerox inventing the modern personal computer in the 1970s and then failing to commercialize it effectively. Yet one of Silicon Valley's most successful companies, Google's Alphabet, appears to be repeating Xerox's mistake with its self-driving car program.
[...] Google's self-driving car program, created in 2009, appears to be on a similar trajectory. By October 2015, Google was confident enough in its technology to put a blind man into one of its cars for a solo ride in Austin, Texas.
But much like Xerox 40 years earlier, Google has struggled to bring its technology to market. The project was rechristened Waymo in 2016, and Waymo was supposed to launch a commercial driverless service by the end of 2018. But the service Waymo launched in December was not driverless and barely commercial. It had a safety driver in every vehicle, and it has only been made available to a few hundred customers.
Today, a number of self-driving startups are aiming to do to Waymo what Apple did to Xerox years ago. Nuro is a driverless delivery startup that announced Monday that it raised $940 million in venture capital. Another, called Voyage, is testing a self-driving taxi service in one of the nation's largest retirement communities.
Right now, these companies' self-driving services aren't as sophisticated as Waymo's. Their vehicles have top speeds of 25 miles per hour. But Apple started out making under-powered products, too, then it gradually worked its way up-market, ultimately eclipsing Xerox. If Waymo isn't strategic, companies like Nuro and Voyage could do the same thing to the pioneering self-driving company.
Previously: Google's Waymo Plans to Launch a Self-Driving Car Service in December
Waymo Announces Limited Debut of "Driverless" Taxi Service in Phoenix, AZ
Waymo Announces Plans for a Driverless Vehicle Factory in Michigan
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:26AM (2 children)
They may be ready in terms of accidents per 100k miles and still retain a human driver, because they'll be held to a FAR higher standard than we hold meat-driven cars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:25AM
(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:37AM
They also better be lawyered up, that's a misuse of my name for commercial purposes!
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:32AM (1 child)
They have taxis in Phoenix?
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:40AM
Yes, horse-drawn ones. So it's really just the horse finding its own way.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:39AM (9 children)
Seems like Phoenix, AZ is a test shoot... errr, pardon... driving range of choice, already populated with human targets that the masters of the town can dispense of.
For a reasonable price, I'm sure.
(trollish grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:52AM (8 children)
Just so long as it's less than are killed by human drivers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:12AM (7 children)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:23AM (6 children)
More than one. In fact try one every 25 seconds.
Besides we need to talk about deaths per mile rather than absolute figures, but I'd be shocked if these aren't safer than humans. They may be scarier because we can't predict/understand the crashes, but that doesn't make them less safe, just more unsettling.
Several people were fatally injured in the time you were reading this. Driving down the rate of deaths per mile driven, and the number of miles driven, is important, moreso than people's peace-of-mind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:34AM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:58AM (2 children)
Incomprehensibility doesn't imply unimprovability, off-policy reinforcement learning will allow it to be prevented without us understanding it or requiring it happen again for each new software version.
Furthermore, if it's already safer than humans could be made to be then it doesn't need to improve further.
As for your last point, I don't see how that's relevant except as being unsettling. If your claim is that people will set out to cause crashes if it becomes harder to detect them having done so, then you're going to have to explain why people don't 'spill' water onto roads in winter. That's similarly hard to detect and far easier to get away with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:23AM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:56AM
The specific reasons for crashes don't matter in the slightest if they kill less people per mile. This only matters if you think a) we won't be able to beat human safety levels without robust recognition (plausible) and b) we won't be able to achieve robust recognition (doubtful). Let's consider b further since I don't take issue with a.
Neural networks are universal function approximators, either they can do robust-as-humans recognition or the physics ruling human brains is uncomputable. The question isn't whether it's possible, but rather whether we can practically train them to be robust. Showing that networks not trained to be robust aren't robust doesn't mean that they can't be practically trained to be, it just means that robustness isn't automatic with current training techniques and we need to design for it. I don't see any reason to believe it's not practical to train it to recognize the class ``unclear signage'' once that's a design goal and sufficient training data is accrued.
If these cars are being rolled out then I expect they're robust enough for the test data (though they probably didn't test in neighborhoods covered in graffiti/snow/mud/&c). This particular implementation may not be sufficiently robust, but sooner or later someone will collect enough data and find the right techniques. This is a difficulty, but not a fundamental limitation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @10:22AM (1 child)
> ...deaths per mile ...
I'm happy to talk about deaths per mile, for my demographic. My father taught me to drive at age 5 (off the road), survived my hormone driven years and am well into middle age. Don't drive drunk or high, don't have a cell phone for distraction, have been through a couple of advanced driver training schools including an intro 3-day racing class, give other (erratic) drivers plenty of room, drive well maintained cars, and haven't had more than a fender bender in all my years of driving. I realize that my number might come up at any time--so I try to avoid developing a false sense of security.
My guess is that my demographic has about a tenth of the deaths per mile of the system average. When these robots get that good I'll start to think about it. Otherwise I'm happy with my odds on the highway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @10:48AM
Be careful not to underestimate the reduction in risk from better reaction times/360° vision though. I'm more excited for my car protecting me from others than myself, if only because there's more of them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bobs on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:30AM (4 children)
Not prepared to entrust my life to an org that feels it is more important to ship on a given date than when the system is ready.
This isn’t a web site or app that you can ‘just ship’ and nobody cares when the ‘Minimum Viable Product’ fails.
You need higher quality control and standards when you are putting people’s lives at risk.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:41AM (3 children)
Believe me, they don't give a shit about what you are prepared to do or not, many others will take their offer.
Speaking of preparedness, I hope you have enough money to buy a light armoured vehicle: for starters, it will be enough in an eventual encounter with a 'ship early, ship often' self-driving van.
If they start pushing self-driving heavy trucks in enough numbers, you may need to think of a personal vehicle made by customising a tank.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @11:11AM (2 children)
You don't want rigidity for the main body, that just maximizes the acceleration you experience. You want something which crumples almost until your body, and then a /small/ rigid section around yourself. You want a croissant.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 06 2018, @11:36AM (1 child)
You'd be right for a tank meets an unmovable obstacle or another tank scenario.
But given that the other vehicle is designed close to a croissant, the vehicle with the higher mass will have to support a lower acceleration. At max 36-40 tonnes total weight for a fully loaded tractor truck+trailer colliding a 80-120 tonnes main battle tank (which will maintain the integrity and functionality during collision) my money is on the occupants of the tank.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @12:05PM
Thanks for pointing out my mistake.
(Score: 1) by negrace on Thursday December 06 2018, @03:09PM (2 children)
Why not force these companies to use the product on themselves?
Drive the engineers and the execs around first for a year or two.
Then the shareholders. And only then you open it to the general public.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @05:42PM
Hasn't Waymo killed more pedestrians than occupants?
They should be forced to have them driving through the execs neighborhoods, where their kids and family are. Then they might be motivated to keep non-occupants safe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @01:26AM
I like this. If you want a Wayme ride, first you have to buy at least one share of Alphabet stock (or meet one of the other criteria mentioned).