Google Driverless Cars Tested In Different States In The US

Waymo, a robotic car company created by Google, is poised to take a huge step in technology as its driverless cars will get on the streets in California.

On Tuesday, the company obtained its regulatory approval which means its robotic cars can travel across California at 65 miles per hour at most.

Google started Waymo as a secretive project almost ten years ago, and since then, driverless cars have marked its trail on millions of miles on the state roads. However, there had to be a driver behind the wheel till the April regulations allowed transition to entire autonomy.

Out of several companies that are testing driverless cars in the state, Waymo became the first one to succeed in persuading the authority to believe in its technology’s safety and to issue permission for totally automatic driving on the roads. Still, the car must be under full control by an engineer from a remote location, and can be stopped or steered in case of emergency.

Not just in California, last year Waymo gave a group of volunteer passengers autonomous rides in Arizona. The company has promised to implement these self-driving cars in a ride-hailing service in Arizona which is open to every comer in the Phoenix region by this year end.

However, California seems a lot more challenging for autonomous cars since it has way bigger population and higher density.

Waymo is extra careful with the next stage in California. First, the cars will drive Waymo’s employees only and the routes are limited in Mountain View and four other Silicon Valley cities, namely Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto, Los Altos and Sunnyvale.

If things go well, the same volunteer passengers program in Arizona take place in California, which can result in a ride-hailing service like in Arizona.

Nevertheless, not everyone is excited and convinced by the technology’s safety. John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy and technology project director, express his doubts about driverless cars and said this next phase would allow Waymo to use people us human guinea pigs in its tests.

In March, those critics got worse when an Uber self-driving car with a human safety driver caused a fatal accident. The accident resulted in a pedestrian killed in a Phoenix suburb, who was crossing a darkened streets.

Waymo’s autonomous cars with safety drivers have been related to a number of accidents in California, yet most of them are not serious with little damage.

Waymo indicates that its driverless cars have autonomously traveled over 10 million miles in 25 cities of various states, though most trips involved safety drivers.

Waymo claims that its self-driving cars will save people as many accidents are results of distracted, intoxicated or bad drivers.

On Tuesday, Waymo said that in case a situation comes up which the car cannot understand, it will stop until it knows what to do next.