Waymo Unveils New Driverless Technology for Robotaxis
Electric vehicle manufacturer Waymo unveiled a new self-driving technology early this week. Waymo’s Generation 6 robotaxi technology can handle a range of weather conditions without numerous sensors and cameras on board.
According to CNBC, the new technology has already been integrated into Waymo’s Geely Zeekr electric vehicles.
Market Entry
Waymo introduced its commercial robotaxi service to the US market back in 2018. Previously, the EV maker has integrated its driverless technology into the electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs and the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Minivans.
The company says that its generation 6 technology will hit the EV market sooner than its prior technologies due to its advanced semiconductor performance and machine learning technology.
“We are confident we can bring this generation to market much faster than the prior generation,” Waymo’s VP for Engineering, Satish Jeyachandran said.
Scaling Waymo One
As its executives share details about the forthcoming generation 6 technology, the company continues to scale its current Waymo One technology across cities like Austin, Los Angeles, Texas, San Francisco, and Phoenix.
Since its inception, Alphabet owned Waymo robotaxis have successfully completed over 2 million trips. Currently, Waymo offers about 50,000 paid autonomous trips each week in Phoenix and San Francisco. Two months ago, the EV maker announced that it was making driverless rides available to any user in San Francisco.
Alphabet announced last month that it would invest an additional $5 billion in Waymo.
According to Jeyachandran, the new investment will enable the EV maker to scale its operations. This includes increasing its fleet once it completes the testing and validation of Generation 6 robotaxi Waymo technology.
New Features
The EV maker anticipates that Geely Zeekr and the Waymo Jaguar I-PACE will coexist. It is expected that the new Waymo Zeekr will have similar footprints as the current Waymo I-Pace SUVs.
The only difference is that the Zeekr comes with a more accessible interior that features more legroom, a high ceiling, and a low step. Waymo has been developing custom software and sensors including radar and lidar that give the Zeekr a 360 view of the obstacles it needs to identify and avoid. The improved sensors come with wipers for clearing precipitation and dirt.
The Zeekr is set to become Waymo’s less expensive tech robotaxi. In an effort to reduce the cost of running each robotaxi, Waymo has reduced the number of cameras in the car from 29 to 13. The Zeekr comes with four lidar sensors.
Little Competition
Waymo is already testing the Generation 6 robotaxi on public roads with drivers on board. Testing and validation work is currently underway in New York, Detroit, and Buffalo. These diverse environments will help Waymo understand how the robotaxis will perform in varying weather and traffic settings.
Although Waymo has been grappling with driverless taxi crashes, it currently faces little competition in the US. Locally, GM’s Cruise faced challenges that forced it to temporarily pull its driverless cars off the road while Tesla recently pushed plans to launch its dedicated autonomous vehicles to October.
