Waymo will begin allowing its self-driving vehicles to drive through Austin without a safety operator behind the wheel starting tomorrow, a crucial step before the company opens the program to the public.
The company Announced On Tuesday, it will begin moving employees around 43 square miles of the Texas capital, including the neighborhoods of Barton Hills, Riverside, East Austin and Hyde Park, as well as downtown Austin.
The step forward comes just a few days after Waymo gained the ability to start charging for trips in expanded territory in both Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Waymo did not offer a timeline for when it plans to start offering autonomous rides to Austinites. When it does, it will become the fourth city where the company’s robotaxis are officially in operation, after Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix.
Waymo continues to steadily expand its autonomous transportation program, which it calls Waymo One, even as other companies in the space have struggled. GM-owned Cruise is currently under investigation from countless state and federal agencies about how he handled an accident with a pedestrian in October. Ford-backed Argo AI went out of business. And many of the once-prominent Chinese audiovisual companies have slowed down or stopped testing in the US
Waymo has also had problems. Last month, one of the company’s autonomous vehicles crashed with a cyclist in San Francisco, an incident the California Department of Motor Vehicles is investigating. The company also recently issued a recall of its autonomous software after two autonomous vehicles in the Phoenix area crashed into the same towed truck late last year.