Waymo, the autonomous driving company of Alphabet, plans expand its autonomous vehicle testing to over 10 new cities, mostly in the US in 2025, showcasing a significant confidence boost in its autonomous driving technology. This expansion strategy will see the inclusion of San Diego and Las Vegas, supplementing ongoing trials in various locations such as Truckee, California, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Upstate New York, and Tokyo.
The company has promised to reveal additional cities participating in this expansion later. A representative from Waymo indicated that each of these cities will receive a small fleet of vehicles for testing purposes, with each vehicle manned by trained human specialists to ensure safety at all times.
In the initial stages of this expanded testing, Waymo plans to operate with fewer than 10 test vehicles per city, taking a cautious approach by manually navigating these vehicles through densely populated and high-traffic areas, such as city centers and freeways. This preliminary phase is expected to last several months before the company proceeds to more advanced levels of autonomous testing.
This development is part of Waymo's broader efforts to scale its ride-hailing services, which now includes Miami, in its operational network. Despite this progress, Waymo continues to face regulatory scrutiny following incidents involving its autonomous vehicles.
Nevertheless, in October, Waymo successfully raised $5.6 billion in funding, with significant support from Alphabet, aimed at accelerating the growth of its autonomous ride-hailing business, signalling strong backing and faith in its prospects within the autonomous vehicle industry.
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