Starting today, human-averse travelers in Phoenix can book a fully autonomous Waymo ride between the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and downtown. The Alphabet-owned company, which is also doubling its fully automated coverage area in the city, says the new route is the world's only fully autonomous airport robotaxi service. Waymo has accelerated its public rollout lately. In March, it received permission to charge for rides with a human safety driver in San Francisco. It also got approval last month to offer fully driverless cars there before rolling out service to the public earlier in December. San Francisco riders can now book a Waymo robotaxi across "a large portion of the city, including every neighborhood along the 17-mile Crosstown Trail."

Cruise recently began giving daytime robotaxi rides in San Francisco. Cruise is now offering daytime robotaxi rides to its employees. The self-driving unit of GM hopes to open up the service to the public soon. Cruise has been testing its robotaxi service in San Francisco since June 2021, when it became the first company authorized to test robotaxis in the state. In June 2022, it was finally able to begin charging for robotaxi rides in the city.

Waymo unveiled an autonomous, all-electric minivan with no wheels, pedals or mirrors that represents a bet on the future of ride-hailing.

Waymo has opened up its fully driverless ride-hail service in downtown Phoenix to all members of the general public in a significant expansion of the technology in a major city. The news comes a day after Waymo secured its driverless deployment permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which allows Waymo to charge for autonomous services, such as delivery, in San Francisco -- and it's a step toward full driverless taxi deployment in the Golden State. The company, a subsidiary of Google's parent Alphabet, had previously been operating the driverless service in downtown Phoenix only for people in its'trusted tester' program. Trusted testers were prohibited from sharing their experiences on social media or with journalists and had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Waymo's offering in downtown Phoenix will allow anyone who downloads the app and hails a ride in Waymo's service area to pay for what the company calls a'rider-only' experience in one of its fleet of Jaguar I-Pace EVs.

Waymo today started giving robotaxi rides, with an autonomous specialist in the driver's seat, to and from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport today. Members of the company's Trusted Tester Program can now hail one of its all-electric Jaguar I-PACE equipped with a fifth-generation Waymo Driver 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for rides between downtown Phoenix and Phoenix Sky Harbor. The company is working with Phoenix Sky Harbor to offer pickups and dropoffs from the 44th Street Sky Train station. While the rides will have autonomous specialists in them for now, Waymo plans to take them out of the robotaxis and provide rider-only rides in the coming weeks. The company is also working with local leaders and community groups to ensure its meeting their needs.

As part of its expansion into more densely populated regions, Waymo has begun testing its autonomous cars in downtown Phoenix. These robotaxis will reportedly begin operating in downtown Phoenix in the late year of 2021, after Waymo has already begun its Trusted Tester Program. Those interested in the programme might put their names on a waiting list, submit an application, and sign a nondisclosure agreement if accepted. In an effort to make Phoenix a "more inclusive city," the queue has been lifted, allowing those who were previously excluded to take advantage of robotic drives across the metro area. With the addition of Downtown Phoenix, the Alphabet-owned firm is showing that it is confident in expanding its autonomous driving service to larger cities.

Waymo is rolling out its driverless robotaxi service in Phoenix for members of the Alphabet-owned company's'trusted tester' program - but users can't share their experience on social media and must sign a nondisclosure agreement. The company calls these trips'rider only' to signify that's there's no human behind the wheel and people who hail them will be ferried around in a Jaguar I-Pace EV in downtown Phoenix. Trusted testers are prohibited from sharing their experiences on social media or with journalists and they must sign a nondisclosure agreement. Waymo is rolling out its driverless robotaxi service in Phoenix for members of the Alphabet-owned company's'trusted tester' program User who participate in the trusted tester program can't share their experience on social media or with journalists and must sign a nondisclosure agreement Back in May, Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said at a TechCrunch event that the company had begun allowing its own employees to hail rides without drivers in downtown Phoenix. Waymo has allowed local residents to apply to be trusted testers since 2017, but the service still had human safety operators behind the wheel until October 2020 when the driverless effort was officially launched.