Waymo opens driverless robo-taxi service to the public in Phoenix

Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of autonomous vehicle research into a revenue-producing business. Waymo, the self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google parent Alphabet, Inc, said it will start offering rides in minivans with no human attendant on board to current members of its Waymo One service in Phoenix. Before the coronavirus pandemic forced Waymo to suspend operations this spring, Waymo was using vehicles with no human attendant on board to provide five to ten percent out of a total of 1,000 to 2,000 rides per week in its Phoenix service zone, Krafcik said. Waymo's move to expand service using vehicles with no attendant on board puts it ahead of rival robo-taxi companies in deploying a revenue generating service in the United States. Waymo rival Zoox was acquired earlier this year by Amazon.com Inc. Ride hailing company Uber Technologies Inc was set back by a fatal accident involving one of its test vehicles.