Waymo’s Rollout In 5 New Cities Begins Today

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Waymo slow-walked its expansion for more than a decade, then it started making moves a couple of years ago and expanding its footprint in notable ways, but it wasn’t until the past year or so that Waymo started really ramping up its expansion announcements. Those were mostly just announcements, though, and expansion of territory in existing locations. Now, however, it’s time to make big moves.

Starting today, Waymo began robotaxi operations in Miami, Florida. The vehicles are not yet widely available to anyone who wants to ride in them, but the wheels are in motion (apologies for the pun) to get to that stage at the beginning of 2016, and the final stage of testing is underway. Safety drivers have been booted from the vehicles (sorry, human workers) and employees (the ones remaining) can hitch a ride in solace. Furthermore, in the coming weeks, the company plans to do the same in four more cities — Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. Here’s more from Waymo on all of this:

“Waymo is introducing fully autonomous driving in five new cities: Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. Operations start today in Miami, and will begin in the remaining four cities over the coming weeks, ahead of opening our doors to riders next year. While going rider-only was once considered a technical feat, it’s become routine for Waymo. We’ve built a generalizable Driver, powered by Waymo’s demonstrably safe AI, and an operational playbook to reliably achieve this milestone, and our safety- and community-first approach, enables us to bring it to riders faster than ever.

“Waymo’s quickly entering a number of new cities in the U.S. and around the world, and our approach to every new city is consistent. We compare our driving performance against a proven baseline to validate the performance of the Waymo Driver and identify any unique local characteristics. As needed, we then refine the Waymo Driver’s AI to navigate these local nuances—which are becoming fewer with every city. This data feeds into a flywheel of continuous improvement, bolstered by rigorous validation through real-world driving and advanced simulation, then implemented through regular software releases. The result is that all of our riders experience consistent, high-quality service with the highest safety standards. The data demonstrates the Waymo Driver is improving road safety in the cities we serve, including involvement in 11 times fewer serious injury collisions compared to human drivers.”

There’s one line in particular that jumped out to me there: “As needed, we then refine the Waymo Driver’s AI to navigate these local nuances—which are becoming fewer with every city.” As one would expect, it’s getting easier and easier, and quicker and quicker, for Waymo to roll out robotaxis in new cities because the system has just been refined further and further each step of the way, leaving less and less to improve. This does go against critics of the approach (which, let’s be frank, and mostly Tesla investors), who have long claimed that Waymo’s approach can’t scale quickly or efficiently and that it has to go through a long, laborious, costly process in each new location. Waymo seems to be saying otherwise here, and the fact that the company plans to expand into 5 new cities in coming weeks sure does prove the point!

Going on, Waymo writes: “We haven’t just built the technology; we’ve developed the definitive playbook for operating autonomous fleets, across dozens of sites, and industry-leading end-to-end rider support. And we’re teaching our partners how to operate autonomous fleets at scale, creating new economic opportunities while bringing the safety benefits of Waymo to more people.” The company sure looks to be marking its territory there, staking its claim as the leading robotaxi company — in the US, at least.

“Successfully scaling requires more than just world-class technology and operations; it requires earning the trust of those we seek to serve. We are committed to bringing policymakers, regulators, safety officials, and community partners on the journey with us so they can have a thorough understanding of how our technology works and the benefits it can provide their communities. We engage in continuous, constructive dialogue and work with local stakeholders and residents to actively listen, learn, and serve their transportation needs.” I do wonder there if Waymo is just trying to build further trust and show all parties, all stakeholders, and the public at large that it has gone about things in the right way and it (and its robotaxis) can be trusted; or if the Silicon Valley self-driving technology company is actually taking a subtle swipe at Tesla and its very different approach to robotaxi development and expansion. Waymo and Tesla have gone about this challenge in vastly different ways, so it’s hard to argue that one way is not wrong if the other is very right. We will see. In the end, I think it does depend a bit on how good each system is and how far it reaches in a year or two. But, without a doubt, Waymo has gone about things in a careful, methodical way.

If you haven’t already done so, you can sign yourself up for Waymo updates here: waymo.com/updates. Of course, we will continue to cover Waymo’s progress, as we’ve done for several years.