Waymo Expands Autonomous Driving Testing to Over 10 New Cities in 2025
Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), announced plans to significantly expand testing of its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities in 2025. This expansion follows successful testing of the Waymo Driver in multiple locations, demonstrating its adaptability to diverse environments.
The expansion will include testing in San Diego and Las Vegas, along with other cities yet to be disclosed. The company will initially deploy a limited fleet of vehicles in each city accompanied by trained human autonomous specialists.
The testing will commence with manual driving through the most challenging and congested areas, including city centers and freeways. Waymo aims to manually operate the vehicles for several months before transitioning to autonomous driving.
"We're excited to bring our autonomous driving technology to these new cities and gather valuable data from diverse environments," said a Waymo spokesperson.
The expansion aligns with Waymo's efforts to gain a competitive edge in the autonomous ride-hailing market and follows its recent expansion of services to Miami, Florida. The company remains under scrutiny from safety regulators following incidents involving autonomous driving technology.
Waymo's latest funding round, led by Google-parent Alphabet, amounted to $5.6 billion and supports its ambitious plans to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service.