Waymo

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Empty Waymo Robotaxi Can't Escape a Roundabout

It's not the first time self-driving Waymos have gone awry

(Newser) - Last month, the folks at Wired shadowed a Waymo robotaxi for an entire workday to "study its movements, its relationship to life on the streets, its whole self-driving gestalt." It's a good thing they didn't track this recently spotted vehicle, because it would've been a...

Waymo Says It's Stopped the Overnight Honking

Vehicles trying to park have been waking San Francisco neighbors

(Newser) - Waymo promises it has made a fix to stop its driverless vehicles from honking at each other in the middle of the night while residents of a San Francisco neighborhood are trying to sleep. It happens when the cars return to a company parking lot, KNTV reports. As they try...

Wednesday Will Be a Huge Day for Waymo

Company is launching paid robotaxi rides in LA

(Newser) - Wednesday will be a huge day for Waymo, Google's self-driving car spinoff. The company says it will add Los Angeles to the list of cities where it is offering paid robotaxi services. The company, which also offers the service in San Francisco, says it has more than 50,000...

Cops: Driverless Taxi Foils Would-Be Car Thief

Suspect in Los Angeles faces charges of grand theft auto

(Newser) - He must have thought it would be the world's easiest car theft: A man in Los Angeles popped behind the wheel of a Waymo driverless taxi in Los Angeles, only to discover that he couldn't make the car go, reports NBC News . Instead, he heard a disembodied voice...

Robotaxis Allowed to Expand Services in San Francisco

State commission gives 2 rival services the green light

(Newser) - California regulators on Thursday approved an expansion that will allow two rival robotaxi services to operate throughout San Francisco at all hours, despite safety worries spurred by recurring problems with unexpected stops and other erratic behavior that resulted in unmanned vehicles blocking traffic, including emergency vehicles. The state's Public...

Waymo Launches Fully Driverless Ride Service

Phoenix vehicles will no longer have backup drivers

(Newser) - Waymo is allowing the general public to hitch a ride in its driverless autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, expanding a service it had been quietly offering to a select group of riders for the past year. The vehicles, which will have no back-up drivers behind the wheel to take over in...

5 Days Into Trial, Uber Reaches Surprise Settlement

Waymo gets a $245M stake in Uber in settlement over driverless technology

(Newser) - Uber is settling a lawsuit filed by Google's autonomous car unit alleging that the ride-hailing service ripped off self-driving car technology. Both sides in the case issued statements confirming the settlement Friday morning in the midst of a federal court trial in the case, per the AP . Google's...

'Safety' Feature in Self-Driving Cars Was Actually 'Pretty Scary'

Waymo thought letting passengers take over controls would be safer—but it wasn't

(Newser) - When Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car division that started in 2009 as a Google initiative, decided to offer an autopilot "out" for passengers—meaning they could take over the vehicle's controls if a dangerous situation arose—it seemed like a practical and needed feature. But the company's...

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