Waymo To Start Driverless Car Service In The United States Next Month

Waymo, an American mobility solutions company that is owned by Alphabet Inc, which is also Google's parent compact has announced that it will be launching its first driverless car service next month in the United States. Waymo will first start this service in a very limited capacity in and around the Phoenix, Arizona area and will restrict it to a small number of pre authorised riders as a test case. The service when eventually be open to more people. Until now, Waymo has been very tight lipped about the program where it has used the likes of the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace as a test vehicle.

As mentioned, the service will be restricted and thus there will be no publicly available app that will allow other people to access this service. The first set of passengers are most likely to be chosen from the Wamo Early Rider Program where a test group of nearly 400 families have been riding in Waymo test cars for nearly a year. These passengers will also be allowed to take along other people for the ride experience. The service will also not operate under the Waymo brand name but will take on a new name to take on the likes of Uber and Lyft - both of which are popular ride hailing services in the United States.

Google first started working on a driverless car concept nearly a decade ago and the launch of the new service will be a culmination of Google and Waymo's efforts. It will also be the first ever such operator in the world and effectively lead the race for driverless mobility solutions.