INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Self-driving startupWaymo,aGooglespin-off owned by parent company Alphabet, has been granted the first permit in California to begin
driverless testing on public roads
Yes, that means self-driving cars without a human behind the wheel will be cruising around California, beginning with a limited geographic
area in Silicon Valley.
The company autonomous vehicles are a common sight on public roads in and around Google headquarters in Mountain
The startup, which began as a moonshot project under X, has been testing on public roads for years now
But this permit, issued by theCalifornia Department of Motor Vehicles, allows Waymo to test these self-driving cars without a human test
driver behind the wheel.
New California DMV regulations that took effect in April allow companies to apply forfully driverless testing
within carefully defined limits
Waymo is the first to get approval
At least one other company is waiting in the wings.
Where you&ll find them
Waymo said its driverless test cars will initially hit the
streets near its Silicon Valley headquarters, including parts of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto
See the map below for the initial driverless launch.
Perhaps anticipating wariness from the public, Waymo emphasized that it knows this
area &well.&
&Mountain View is home to more than a dozen autonomous vehicle companies, and has supported safe testing for years,& the
company said in its announcement.
Waymo will eventually expand its driverless testing territory
Before it moves into a new area, Waymo said it will notify the new communities where this expansion will occur, and submit a request to the
DMV.
Members of the public won&t be invited into these driverless cars just yet
However, Waymo is working toward that goal
The first driverless rides will be for Waymo employees
Waymo said it will eventually &create opportunities for members of the public to experience this technology,& similar to its early ride
program in Arizona.
What Waymo is allowed to do
The driverless permit allows Waymo to test its driverless vehicles during the day and night
oncity streets, rural roads and highways with posted speed limits of up to 65 miles per hour
Waymo is also allowed to test in fog and light rain, conditions that the company said its vehicles can handle.
If one of its driverless
vehicles encounters a situation it doesn&t understand it will come to &safe stop,& Waymo said, adding that it has well-established protocols
that include contacting fleet and rider support.
The company announced earlier this month that its autonomous vehicles havedriven 10 million
mileson public roads in the United States since it began working onself-driving technology in 2009.
California is not the first state to
test true driverless vehicles on public roads
Arizona gets that distinction
Waymobegan testing self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Minivans in Phoenix suburbs, notably Chandler, in 2016
The companylaunched an early rider program in April 2017
Later that year,Waymo removed employees and passengers from its test fleet, sending empty self-driving minivansonto the streets of greater
Phoenix.
By May of this year, Waymo began allowing some early riders in Phoenix to hail a self-driving minivan without a human test driver
