Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Alphabet, has reached a significant milestone in Nashville by removing human safety drivers from its test vehicles, signaling progress toward launching a robotaxi service in the city.
In partnership with Lyft, Waymo plans to introduce a robotaxi service in Nashville this year. Riders will initially be able to hail rides through the Waymo app, with the service later expanding to the Lyft app. Lyft’s subsidiary Flexdrive will manage the fleet’s operational needs, including vehicle readiness, maintenance, and charging infrastructure.
Waymo’s expansion includes commercial robotaxi services in major cities like Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Phoenix, with driverless test fleets in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The company follows a consistent rollout strategy, starting with manually driven vehicles to map the city, progressing to testing with a human safety operator, and finally transitioning to driverless testing before launching the robotaxi service.
Source: TechCrunch