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Waymo is ready to launch driverless delivery vehicles in San Francisco

Owned by Alphabet, Waymo says it's ready to remove drivers from its autonomous vehicles.

Donovan Erskine

March 22, 2022 8:45 AM

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Waymo, a unit under Google’s parent company Alphabet, specializes in autonomous vehicle services, from ride shares to deliveries. Up to this point, the service has been operating in San Francisco in an early trial phase, albeit with safety drivers on board. Now, Waymo has announced that it’s ready to take the next step and go fully driverless with its service.

In a post to the Waymo blog, co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana penned an open letter to the people of San Francisco, sharing the update on the company’s business. Now six months into the Trusted Tester Program, he reflects on all the feedback the team has received and how it has been used to improve the service in that time. Providing a few anecdotes from Waymo users, Mawakana closes his message by announcing the company’s intention to go fully autonomous.

“We’re now ready to begin introducing the Waymo Driver in fully autonomous mode—with no specialist behind the wheel—in the city as a major step on our path to deploying a fully autonomous commercial service.” He goes on to explain that the company benchmarked the Waymo Driver’s performance against its safety evaluation methodologies.

In the blog post, the co-CEO also explains the benefits of having a service like Waymo in San Francisco, citing the city's pedestrian deaths and vehicle-related injuries in 2021. He also talks about the fact that Waymo’s fleet consists exclusively of electric vehicles, which will contribute towards sustainability. More information about Waymo’s move to fully autonomous is set to arrive in the coming months. For updates on the world of technology, electric vehicles, and more, Shacknews is your place.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_