Google sister company Waymo starts offering self-driving taxis

Google sister company Waymo has started offering its taxi service with self-driving cars in the US city of Phoenix. For the time being, the Waymo One service can be used by several hundred people.

Although the car is self-driving, there is a driver behind the wheel to intervene if necessary, Waymo writes. The Waymo One service should become available to more and more people in the coming year, once more cars are on the road. Users can book a taxi through an app, which they use to communicate with the service. In this way, for example, they can also change the destination en route.

Waymo has been beta testing the self-driving cars in Phoenix for a year and a half. It is probably Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which Waymo has equipped with all kinds of sensors and cameras to observe the environment.

It is unknown when exactly Waymo will expand to other regions. It seems that the company is targeting the United States first. It is not yet clear when and whether the service will come to Europe. Waymo grew out of Google’s experimental project to build a self-driving car.