Self-driving cars are slowly becoming less sci-fi and more real-world as companies like Waymo, the autonomous arm of Google's parent, Alphabet, expand into more areas. And on Tuesday, Waymo said it'll be driving fully autonomously in five new cities, doubling the number of places in which its vehicles operate without a human behind the wheel.
Waymo currently offers fully autonomous rides to the general public in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas, through the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace. The vehicles can be summoned either via the Waymo app or Uber, depending on the city.
Now, it'll also drive fully autonomously in Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando -- first with employees only, before opening to the public next year. The rollout kicked off on Tuesday in Miami and will extend to the other four cities in the coming weeks, Waymo said in a blog post.
Waymo's expansions have ramped up in recent months. In an Aug. 29 blog post, Waymo said it's "entering a new chapter and accelerating our commercial expansion."
In early November, Waymo said it's bringing its ride-hailing service to three new cities: Las Vegas, San Diego and Detroit. As part of the rollout, Waymo is deploying both its Jaguar I-Pace fleet, which already operates in a handful of other cities, as well as the newer Zeeker RT vehicles that are equipped with Waymo's latest, sixth-generation self-driving technology. The company plans to open up to public riders in the new locations next year.
And last week, Waymo began driving passengers on freeways in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
You can find a full list of where Waymo currently operates and plans to expand below.
Waymo's growth extends to its manufacturing facilities. In May, the company said it's opening a new, 239,000-square-foot autonomous vehicle factory in the Phoenix area. The plan is to add 2,000 more fully autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles to its existing 1,500-vehicle fleet. Notably, Waymo indicated it received its "final delivery from Jaguar" earlier this year, as it plans for future iterations of its driverless rides. Waymo added that the "facility's flexible design" will allow it to integrate its upcoming sixth-generation self-driving technology into new vehicles, starting with the all-electric Zeekr RT.
Last October, Waymo also announced it's partnering with Hyundai to bring the next generation of its technology into Ioniq 5 SUVs. In the years to come, riders will be able to summon those all-electric, autonomous vehicles using the Waymo app. And in April, Waymo said it reached a preliminary agreement with Toyota to "explore a collaboration" geared toward developing autonomous driving tech, which could someday be factored into personally owned vehicles.
The self-driving company says it's driven over 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads and has provided more than 10 million paid rides. I've hailed several rides myself in San Francisco and, as off-putting as it can seem at first (especially to see a steering wheel turn by itself), I quickly adjusted, and it soon felt like an ordinary ride.
... continue reading