Waymo to test, but not offer, self-driving cars in Philly this summer

Robots are set to take the streets of Philly by storm as residents may start seeing automated vehicles sharing the streets with cars and buses in Center City this summer This robot rollout will be part of Waymo s road trip series in which vehicles are tested on city streets to improve their driving capabilities Waymo a subsidiary of Google s parent company Alphabet says there are no immediate plans for an autonomous taxi organization in Philly The California-based company says that the vehicles will be tested with a human behind the wheel during training and will undergo additional testing in specific of Philadelphia s more challenging areas like Center City and on highways to improve the vehicles Folks will see our vehicles driving at all hours throughout various neighborhoods from North Central to Eastwick and from University City to as far east as the Delaware River a Waymo spokesperson disclosed The company disclosed the Philadelphia testing on X formerly Twitter Monday This city is a National Treasure It s a city of love where eagles fly with a gritty spirit and cheese that spreads and cheese that steaks Our road trip continues to Philly next https t co XzLSFV O https t co L PkJySxO pic twitter com G dFGlSaa Waymo Waymo July Philly is not the only testing ground this summer Waymo will be running similar tests in New York and parts of northern New Jersey The company launched its driverless taxis in Phoenix five years ago and has since expanded to Los Angeles San Francisco Atlanta and Austin Miami and Washington D C are next on Waymo s rollout schedule While a road trip is not a guarantee of a future full launch of the provision it has been part of the rollout in Los Angeles and other cities Philly s history with robots If Philly were to see the launch of Waymo taxis sometime in the future they wouldn t be the first autonomous vehicles in the city In January Perrone Robotics launched a self-driving shuttle pilot in the Navy Yard also with a human driver on hand The shuttles drew resistance from several union members who raised safety concerns and worried about driver layoffs The Waymo announcement also drew Philadelphians to recall the fate of HitchBOT the hitchhiking robot which saw its cross-country journey come to an end here in Specific of them took to X to warn Waymo that its automated vehicles might be in jeopardy Don't you remember the last robot that tried to scoot around Philly Bad things happen in Philadelphia pic twitter com jt YyTXhv Rich WBVRich July Boy you guys are in for a ride awakening pic twitter com vhNtuuUPzU Noam Chompsky's Chips mtskullcrusher July We kill robots just fyi pic twitter com esRjzGUuE DJ Jaybird DJ jaybird July close enough welcome back HitchBOT https t co LsGEMhCnn pic twitter com pX GUsLmrx Josh Billinson jbillinson July Job and safety concerns Autonomous vehicles are of program a new device and something that raises safety questions In a survey by automotive services provider AAA only of U S drivers revealed that they would trust a self-driving conveyance That s genuinely a drop from in Yet evidence shows that Waymo and its autonomous vehicles are comparatively safe A Swiss Re examination determined that over million miles driven by Waymo vehicles resulted in nine property damage indicates and two bodily injury alleges That compares to about property damage states and bodily injury proposes for the average human driver over a similar distance Still pushback to Waymo s launches stems from concerns that extend beyond safety as critics worry about job displacement among taxi and rideshare drivers as driverless vehicles are introduced In New York where there are more than taxis Waymo is petitioning to overturn a law forbidding autonomous vehicles Philly only had taxis as of October according to The Inquirer and a survey estimated the city had ride-share drivers That number is almost certainly higher in the current era The post Waymo to test but not offer self-driving cars in Philly this summer appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY