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Waymo's Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service Now Available To All In San Francisco (reuters.com) 10
Postedby BeauHD from the no-more-waiting dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet's Waymo said on Tuesday its autonomous ride-hailing service, Waymo One, is now available to everyone in San Francisco, nearly four years after a similar move in Phoenix, Arizona. Driverless vehicles are expected to drive commercial success for automakers even as regulatory scrutiny remains tight amid concerns of investors about growing investments in the nascent technology. Waymo had started a test service with its research-focused program in San Francisco in 2021, which included an autonomous specialist on board for all rides at that time, as it looked to commercialize the technology.
The company said that about 300,000 people had signed up to ride with Waymo since it first opened a waitlist in the city, signaling strong demand. Now with open access, anyone can request a ride on its app. The company had opened access to everyone in Phoenix, Arizona without a waitlist in 2020. Mountain View, California-based Waymo is a self-driving technology pioneer, which started its first U.S. driverless taxi service in 2020 over a decade after it was born in 2009 as a project inside Google. In March, the company received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to start its Waymo One in Los Angeles and some cities near San Francisco.
Waymo's Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service Now Available To All In San Francisco More| ReplyLogin
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )
I live in the Bay Area, and people in SF whine about random stuff more than anywhere else I've ever been.
You'd think SF people would be forward-looking, but there are plenty of granola-chomping Luddites pining for the good ole days of the 1960s.
I don't understand why Waymo wants to roll out in SF so early. They are certain to get blowback, and it will be magnified by all the media based there.
Re: Be sure to pay your fare (Score:2)
by phantomfive ( 622387 )
It could be they don't have enough users, and are hoping this will increase the number of people using the service.
Re: (Score:2)
by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )
It could be they don't have enough users, and are hoping this will increase the number of people using the service.
Obviously. But they can do that anywhere.
Re: (Score:1)
by BishopBerkeley ( 734647 )
Those are all good things about SF. There is much greater resistance to BS than in other places, and Waymo taxis really smack of BS.
Re: (Score:2)
by NoWayNoShapeNoForm ( 7060585 )
Thank you for taking Jonny Cab ! Hope you enjoyed the ride !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
So how is it that we're not about to see (Score:2)
by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
Hundreds of thousands of cab drivers lose their jobs? Yeah I know there are some places where the weather won't be consistent enough to allow for this but because we turned cab driving into gig work they can just fall back on Uber and Lyft drivers and other temp workers who don't have any employment protections.
I realize it's the densest place but New York City alone has 75, 000 people either driving cabs or Uber/Lyft. There's around 300,000 full-time cab drivers and something like 1.5 million people doi
Re: (Score:2)
by Berkyjay ( 1225604 )
We are absolutely at the beginning of big tech taking over the most popular form of transportation and people in SF are all about it. They don't really see, understand, or care about the long term consequences of this. They just want their own personal driver to chauffeur to drive them wherever they (so they think) want in privacy. Those of us over 40 probably won't see the final consequences of this. But the younger generations, who are eschewing learning how to drive, are happily walking into a future
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