Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing time on May 5 morning news, It is reported that Google parent company Alphabet's autonomous driving company Waymo is preparing to expand the scale of driverless taxi operations in San Francisco and Phoenix, Two areas are Waymo's most important deployment points.

Phoenix is Arizona's capital and largest city. In the Phoenix area, Waymo first launched driverless taxi service in Scottsdale and then expanded to nearby cities of Tempe, Chandler and Mesa. The expanded Waymo service covers an area of 180 square miles (CTOnews.com notes: about 466.2 square kilometers), which Waymo says is the largest completely driverless service area in the world.

Waymo has long offered driverless taxi service in San Francisco, and now it's ready to cover more neighborhoods. Waymo, however, cannot charge passengers directly in San Francisco and needs approval.

Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo's chief product officer, revealed that driverless drop-offs have exceeded 10,000 and will exceed 100,000 next year. Panigrahi believes that current "passenger traffic" is quite healthy, and Waymo can keep passengers in the market where it operates. Tens of thousands of people in the San Francisco area are waiting to experience driverless services.

Panigrahi also said Waymo's focus has shifted as the scale of its operations has expanded, from accumulating miles to improving service quality. Some users will summon Waymo driverless cars on "date nights" because driverless cars protect privacy and are safer if they travel late at night.

According to Paniglahi, Waymo is testing driverless trucks, but he would not disclose commercial hours.

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