Waymo, a self-driving taxi company, has reportedly begun operating in New York City.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company that operates Waymo, announced on the 18th that it had applied for a Waymo operating permit in New York City to the New York City Department of Transportation. However, it was reported that this application was submitted on the condition that the vehicle would be operated in autonomous driving mode with a safety manager in the driver’s seat, not unmanned operation.
Alphabet explained, “Waymo is not yet ready to provide a smooth autonomous transportation service throughout New York City, but we plan to gradually expand the service starting with a pilot operation.”
Waymo previously collected data in manual driving mode in some areas of New York City in 2021. Waymo’s car-hailing service, ‘Waymo One’, is currently operating 250,000 trips per week in LA, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas. Meanwhile, unmanned autonomous driving is currently prohibited in New York State.