Waymo: Driverless robo-taxis are being tested on highways

The US start-up Waymo is planning to start testing its fully autonomous vehicles without a human safety driver on freeways in the San Francisco area this week. This was reported by the US tech portal TechCrunch on Monday.

"The company's employees will be the first guinea pigs," the report states. According to the report, the first off-peak tests will begin with "less than a handful" of vehicles. The move comes at a time when Waymo, equipped with an additional five billion dollar investment from parent company Alphabet, is pushing to expand its robot taxi operations in San Francisco. Just last week, Waymo added another 25 square kilometers to its robotaxi service area to include cities surrounding the California metropolis.

Traffic violations and investigations

Waymo operates a round-the-clock robotaxi service in San Francisco in the US state of California. However, there has been tension there for some time over the autonomous vehicles. These were approved by the responsible federal authority in the face of opposition from the city authorities. In January, San Francisco filed a lawsuit against the federal authority that granted the license.

Then, at the beginning of February, a Waymo vehicle hit a cyclist, who was slightly injured. A few days later, the controversy reached a new level: a crowd damaged and smeared an empty Waymo robot cab in the middle of a busy street in San Francisco, eventually setting it on fire to applause.

Investigations against Waymo

An application by Waymo to expand its robotaxi operations in the districts of Los Angeles and San Mateo in the US state of California was initially halted by the regulatory authorities – probably also in light of the events described above. In March, the Alphabet subsidiary then received a permit after all, including permission to charge for autonomous driving on the highway.

However, the reports of accidents and breakdowns did not stop there. Numerous incidents involving Waymo cars driving autonomously on the road led to an official investigation in May. This was expanded shortly afterwards. The reason for this was recent road safety violations, such as driving in the lane of oncoming traffic, collisions with parked cars and other stationary objects, driving into unpaved construction sites and disregarding traffic regulations. Following an accident, the company launched a voluntary recall in mid-June. The recall concerns the software of the Automated Driver System (ADS).

(akn)