There may have been a lot of trouble down the road, but autonomous taxis are starting to expand their operations across cities. Waymo, in particular, is already seeing a significant increase in the number of successful trips it makes in a week.
Waymo's Increasing Number of Completed Trips
The Google-backed company has been branching out with its operations for a while now, and it has already started testing its vehicles in Atlantal. With cities like San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles having active Waymo robotaxis, business for the company is booming.
Waymo just announced that it is now completing over 50,000 trips per week, which cover three major cities. That's a huge achievement for the robotaxi industry considering the number of issues it has seen in the past such as accidents and inconveniences.
"We see people from all walks of life use our service to travel carefree, gain independence, reclaim their commute and more," the company said. "Fully autonomous ride-hailing is a reality and a preferred mobility option for people navigating their cities every day."
That's not to say that Waymo has not contributed to the number of reported autonomous ride-hailing incidents in the last few years. Since it is technically still being improved, there are bound to be a few hiccups before it operates with little to no issues.
As mentioned in Digital Trends, several of its robotaxis were involved in an incident last month where the vehicles blocked access to a freeway on-ramp. Employees had to manually drive the cars out of the way to resolve the situation.
The disruption in traffic lasted for about 30 minutes. For some, that amount of time is more than long enough to cause hassles like being late for work or missing an important meeting, so it goes without saying that some are not too happy about autonomous taxis.
Unfortunately, disrupting traffic is not the worst thing that driverless taxis have caused. In other cases such as GM's Cruise, there have been incidents that caused severe injuries, such as the woman who was thrown in the way of the taxi and was dragged for a couple of meters.
Waymo Recalled Its Software for Crashing Into a Truck
Like all innovations, there are things that need to be improved before a product or a service is deemed 100% functional. In December last year, two Waymo cars hit the same truck, which resulted in the company having to recall the software.
Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña said that the crashes did not cause any harm and were minor, as per Tech Crunch. Still, the company is required to check the software and make some changes to make sure it doesn't happen again.
The ride-hailing service also reported the incidents to the Phoenix Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, as well as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a few days after the incident.
However, two Waymo vehicles hitting the same truck was not the last situation the company was involved in. It was also reported that a Waymo robotaxi hit a cyclist just three months ago. People aren't too happy about the service seeing as one vehicle was severely vandalized in San Francisco.
