Waymo Makes Incredible Progress In Autonomous Cars
Self-driving cars. Not a thing of the future, by all means. Companies are doing all that they can to become the next big name in the self-driving car market. Google, Apple, Tesla, you name it. But there is yet another company who has done a lot in the self-driving market but has also managed to remain incognito too.
Waymo is the other company who is gaining a lot of progress in the self-driving car market, and its fleet continues to roam the streets of America and has managed to remain unnoticed. The fleet’s vehicles have recently reached more than 12 million kilometers, and the cars now cover 40,000 kilometers per day.
Huge Progress
The CEO of the company, John Krafcik recently took to Twitter to boast about the company’s progress. The car has gained a lot of momentum recently, and the cars have traveled more than a million kilometers in just eight months, and the fleet has doubled its mileage, and that too at a distance of just 6 million kilometers to 12 million kilometers.
And this is just the numbers on road. Waymo has also traveled 5 billion kilometers in simulations. The cars that are used most in the simulations are Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans, and the company is investing much more in the car over the next few years by agreeing to buy up to 62,000 more Pacificas. But that is not just the only car that Waymo wants.
The company has also agreed to purchase up to 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace electric SUV’s, and the company believes that the autonomous driving system can be installed on different vehicles for different tasks. Right now these cars are being tested in California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Michigan and the Washington State.
Wide Trials
The cars are widely tested in these many cities to boost the commercialization of these autonomous cars. But just because these cars are being tested this widely does not mean that the vehicles would be deployed soon. The CEO has stated that the massive adoption of autonomous vehicles could very well take a while, and in fact, longer than one thinks.
The company is also not giving an official launch date, and the company is keeping many specifications under wraps. But considering the progress that the company has made, the company could very well be the first company to deploy autonomous vehicles for commercial use in America.
