Does this mean they can go on the highways? If so that’s a significant upgrade to the Waymo service in the SF Bay Area, as it can now take you between towns.
They’ve always had approval to go up to 65 mph, but it was Waymo’s decision not to go on the highways. They’re starting to do it [1] and do a lot of freeway testing, so it might happen sooner.
Is there any underlying reason for the high traffic incident rate from the insurance company? Glendale seemed relatively safe when I was driving there.
Which is strange. You'd think officals would be jumping at the chance to bilk Google out of money that they can line their pockets with.
i've struggled to get an uber for some early morning flights and can see it being easier to waymo to millbrae bart and connect to SFO than waiting a long time or paying insane surge prices for uber
You could also waymo to millbrae and uber to SFO. The price ($5.20) for BART to SFO makes it unattractive, especially since you often have to wait for a while. I've caltrained to millbrae and taken uber to SFO for $12, which is often worth the time tradeoff for me.
This changes the calculus for Google employees to live in SF and commute to Mountain View. They already run shuttle buses but with this, they can make it easier for their employees to commute at off hours by giving them priority for rides.
Still no Oakland :( Hopefully that's next.
Wow, it's huge that they'll be doing LAX (dropoffs only I assume?)
when does this roll out?
Approval is effective immediately, but no idea when Waymo will deploy vehicles in those areas. Their fleet size is small (~700 cars).
Not for long!
shit I hope this doesn't raise prices if I'm now competing with all of South Bay