Waymo Self-driving cars in Arizona are starting to navigate local roads without a human in the driver’s seat.
Alphabet’s autonomous car unit, Waymo, is phasing out the need for a test driver in its vehicles. Save for the passengers inside, a subset of the company’s self-driving cars will operate by themselves on public roads in the Phoenix metro region, Waymo announced on Tuesday.
The fleet of self-driving cars will at first operate in a limited area in Phoenix, but Waymo will gradually increase the coverage area to the size of “Greater London,” it said, and add more vehicles over time.
For eight years, the company has been developing the technology and doing test runs on public roads across 20 US cities. For safety reasons, a human test driver was always nearby to take over.
Arizona residents in the Phoenix metropolitan can still apply, and receive free rides from Waymo.
