Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Waymo recently announced that it plans to bring its autonomous driving services (Waymo One) to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. At this time, Waymo only runs its services in the Phoenix, Arizona region, but it is trying to expand its business to other areas of the world.
"When we think about our next cities, Los Angeles jumps out," Waymo's co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana wrote in a blog post. "LA is a remarkable, vibrant place - and Waymo's experience leaves us best positioned to tackle its driving complexity."
Waymo, which has had an influence in Los Angeles since the year 2019, would ultimately like to make its efforts much more marketable. To start, over a dozen Waymo self-driving vehicles will be accessible in Los Angeles and then move forward from there, according to Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo's new chief product officer.
The ultimate goal behind this project is for this to be an entirely driverless robotaxi service, which will run 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. According to Waymo, it has already begun driving around the city of Los Angeles in order to accumulate mapping data. This would involve people who would drive the cars up and down roads as sensors simultaneously acquire data in terms of crosswalks, road edges, curb heights, and intersections.
According to Waymo, this service will first be accessible through safety drivers with Waymo workers as passengers. Public testing will start after it obtains permits and further information in terms of feedback.
In terms of the type of coverage that Waymo will obtain, it will run all throughout the Los Angeles metro area. This region goes from Thousand Oaks to San Clemente, and at times the Riverside area. In comparison to places like Phoenix and San Francisco, Los Angeles is quite busy with many complex roads.
In a press release, Waymo also said the following: "We've also autonomously driven millions of miles on freeways, giving us a head start handling some of Los Angeles's most challenging roads. Roads that include criss-crossing freeway ramps, narrow surface streets, high numbers of unprotected left turns, blinding sunsets down its east-west roads, and distracted drivers."