Waypoint

Fleet response: Lending a helpful hand to Waymo’s autonomously driven vehicles

Tue, 21 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Waymo Driver autonomously navigates tens of thousands of rider-only miles across San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin daily. It can navigate common scenarios, like adhering to a crossing guard directing traffic, as well as more unique interactions like avoiding a swerving vehicle. As the Waymo Driver travels across town, it might contact fleet response for additional help.

Phoenix residents can now experience Uber Eats delivery with the Waymo Driver

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As part of our ongoing partnership with Uber, Uber Eats consumers may be matched with the Waymo Driver, and have their meals delivered by a fully autonomous Waymo vehicle within our 225+ square mile Metro Phoenix service area.

Announcing the 2024 Waymo Open Dataset Challenges

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our progress on the road is in many ways enabled by the same type of data we make available for research to the scientific community via the Waymo Open Dataset, one of the largest and most diverse autonomous driving datasets ever released. Today we’re excited to announce the start of our 2024 Waymo Open Dataset Challenges, which will run through May 2024.

Scaling Waymo One safely across four cities this year

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Later this year, Waymo One will be offering rides to the public in four major cities. Starting tomorrow, March 14, our fully autonomous ride-hailing service will be available to select members of the public in Los Angeles. And after starting initial rider-only testing in Austin last week, we plan to offer Waymo One to Austinites later this year.

Voluntary recall of our previous software

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier today, we voluntarily filed a recall report with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for software that was previously on our fleet. We chose to do this after consultation with NHTSA and our own internal review of two incidents that occurred in a rare scenario in Phoenix on December 11, 2023, which resulted in no injuries and minor vehicle damage. Our entire fleet was updated with software to address this rare issue between December 20, 2023 and January 12, 2024. Our ride-hailing service is not and has not been interrupted by this update.

From surface streets to freeways, safely expanding our rider-only testing

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo will begin testing its fully autonomous passenger cars without a human driver on freeways in Phoenix to soon help Waymo One riders get where they’re going safely and efficiently. Just as we've taken a phased approach to rolling out our technology and operations in the past, we will continue to deploy in a step-by-step manner, first providing rider-only trips to our employees on freeways across Phoenix.

Dear Waymo Community: Reflections from this year together

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This year provided clear reminders of the importance of learning from our riders, operating with humility, and demonstrating trustworthiness to the communities in which we operate. We partner with over 100 local and national nonprofits that work to improve road safety and make mobility more accessible because being a part of your daily lives is a responsibility we take incredibly seriously. We’re deeply grateful for their partnership and wisdom.

Waymo significantly outperforms comparable human benchmarks over 7+ million miles of rider-only driving

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Safety leads everything we do at Waymo. This year alone, Waymo has served over 700,000 ride-hailing trips with public riders and no human driver. We couldn’t have hit that milestone without putting safety front and center, and we are working hard to improve the measurement, transparency, and performance of our fleet.

Road trip! How our cross-country testing helps advance the Waymo Driver

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Experience is the best teacher, no matter if you're learning to drive a car or getting to know a new city. The Waymo Driver — our core set of technology comprised of hardware and software that enables autonomous driving — has multiple lifetimes of experience navigating the real world and helping people and things get where they're going safely. To bring the benefits of our technology to more people in more places and deliver on our mission to improve road safety, we take the Waymo Driver on road trips to regions where the driving culture and conditions differ from the areas we regularly operate.

The Waymo Driver: now available on Uber in Phoenix

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Good news, Phoenix. There’s now another way to catch a ride with the Waymo Driver. Starting today, Uber customers can get matched with a fully autonomous, all-electric Waymo ride — with no human driver behind the wheel—in the 225+ square miles of Metro Phoenix where Waymo currently [operates](https://waymo.com/waymo-one-phoenix/).

Waymo advances AI research with our multifunctional Waymax simulator

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo we are continuously pushing the boundaries of AI innovation and contributing to the research community, which is why today we are announcing [Waymax](http://waymo.com/research/waymax) – a lightweight simulator developed specifically for autonomous driving research.

Waymo One is going on tour in Los Angeles

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo One, our 24/7 autonomous ride-hailing service, is going on tour across Los Angeles. Beginning in October, residents and visitors will have a chance to score early access tickets to take fully autonomous Waymo One rides in LA neighborhoods ahead of a wider service launch.

Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are significantly safer than human-driven ones, says new research led by Swiss Re

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo and Swiss Re, one of the world’s leading reinsurers, [partnered in 2022](https://waymo.com/blog/2022/09/waymo-and-swiss-res-new-research.html) to advance risk assessment methodologies and approaches to evaluating safety of autonomous vehicles.

Waymo’s next chapter in San Francisco

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Fully autonomous vehicles were once the unimaginable future. For many San Franciscans they’re now a daily reality and an essential mode of transportation. Since late 2022, thousands of SF residents across all neighborhoods have relied on our fully autonomous [Waymo One](https://waymo.com/waymo-one/) service to get around the city 24/7.

Making green transportation accessible to all

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We all make choices every day that affect the climate, but one of the biggest is how we get around. As a zero-emission ride-hailing service, Waymo One can make that decision easy.

The Waymo Driver's Rapid Learning Curve

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine if you could automatically learn from the driving experiences of others on the road, absorbing knowledge about all the complicated scenarios they've encountered. The Waymo Driver covers tens of thousands of miles — equivalent to a lifetime of human driving experience — in a matter of days; in simulation, it does so in minutes. But driving is a social and complex task, so it’s not just about accumulating miles, but learning from each one. Our Driver has a unique ability to learn from road events across the entire fleet, advancing its capabilities at incredible speeds. This rapid pace of learning is one of the key factors that has enabled our recent expansion across multiple major U.S. cities. Here’s a glimpse of some technological advancements that have directly contributed to our progress, as well as areas where we continue to accelerate and improve.

Waymo One heads to Austin

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It’s official. Austin will be Waymo’s fourth major ride-hail city, joining Metro Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as we continue to expand and build momentum for our commercial ride-hail business.

Doubling down on Waymo One

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, we’re developing a generalizable, fully autonomous Driver – the Waymo Driver – designed to integrate with a variety of vehicle platforms and commercial applications including ride-hailing, trucking, local delivery, and personal car ownership. Given the tremendous momentum and substantial commercial opportunity we’re seeing on the ride-hailing front, we’ve made the decision to focus our efforts and investment on ride-hailing. We’re iterating more quickly than ever on our technology by pushing forward state of the art AI/ML, and seeing significant business growth and rider demand in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

Past the limit: Studying how often drivers speed in San Francisco and Phoenix

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Speeding is one of the leading causes of death on the road. In 2020, speeding was a contributing factor in 11,258 deaths and 308,013 injuries, accounting for nearly one-third of all traffic fatalities and 13% of injuries in the U.S., according to the [NHTSA](https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813320). Safety initiatives such as [Vision Zero](https://visionzeronetwork.org/) have been instrumental in helping cities design streets, set speed limits, and implement policies to reduce speeding and lessen the likelihood and forcefulness of crashes. The Waymo Driver can help achieve that important goal.

The Waymo Driver is already improving road safety

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Excitement and caution often go hand-in-hand when a new, transformative technology is introduced. I’ve seen it many times in my career while working on innovative rocket launches, commercial space satellites, and now autonomous driving in my role as Chief Safety Officer at Waymo. Case in point, when it comes to Waymo’s autonomous vehicles, I hear two questions most frequently.

Waymo at CVPR 2023: At the cutting-edge of autonomous driving research

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We’re excited to announce Waymo’s participation in the 50th Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), where we will present our latest work in autonomous driving research.

Waymo and Uber partner to bring Waymo’s autonomous driving technology to the Uber platform

Tue, 23 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Today, Waymo and Uber are excited to announce a new, multi-year strategic partnership to make the Waymo Driver available to more people via the Uber platform starting in Phoenix.

Keeping riders and other road users safe with Safe Exit features

Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

When arriving at your destination and opening the door, how often do you stop to think who might be on the other side? According to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, collisions with bicyclists when a vehicle's door opens into moving traffic, or "dooring," is the second most common collision that results in injury or fatality. To help prevent 'dooring' events, Waymo implemented new and more effective methods to help inform riders when other road users are nearby by employing the same sensing technology the Waymo Driver uses to navigate roadways autonomously.

Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix and continues growing in San Francisco

Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We’re significantly expanding our Waymo One ride-hailing service area in Metro Phoenix and growing in San Francisco to connect more communities and serve more riders.

Guided by the flow: The role of aerodynamics in shaping the Waymo Driver

Tue, 02 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It's essential to understand the aerodynamics of the different vehicle platforms on which Waymo's autonomous driving technology is applied to build and operate an efficient system – especially when running at full capacity in various conditions such as rain, fog, snow, or extreme temperatures. By using physical tests and state-of-the-art simulation tools, we can optimize energy use, improve sensor performance, and build a safe, stable, scaleable autonomous Driver.

Expanding Waymo’s testing to the city that keeps it weird

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On October 20, 2015, Steve Mahan, who is legally blind, became the first person in the world to ride in a fully autonomous vehicle—with no human driver behind the wheel. And he did so on residential streets in Austin, in Waymo’s Firefly prototype vehicle—the first generation of our Waymo Driver.

Paving the way toward a fully electric ride-hailing fleet

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In late April, we will deploy the Jaguar I-PACE and our fifth-generation Waymo Driver in the Phoenix East Valley, making our entire Waymo One ride-hailing fleet fully electric. We’ll retire the previous-generation Waymo Driver from our service, as we have done with similar platforms in the past.

Why I Ride with Waymo: David

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: David, a Downtown Phoenix rider, tried out a “90 days of Waymo” test, where he was seeing if he could use Waymo One for trips he would usually use his personal car for. It went pretty well, and he’s enjoying the trusted space Waymo One provides for him to decompress after work and all the time he’s saved not driving (1,902 minutes to be exact). Check out our conversation and the video he shared with us to hear more about his Waymo experiment.

A Blueprint for AV Safety: Waymo’s Toolkit For Building a Credible Safety Case

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For many years, Waymo has relied on an established safety framework — a comprehensive set of methodologies that we use to assess the safety of our technology and operations and that guides the deployment of the Waymo Driver. Our robust safety framework has enabled us to launch the world’s first fully autonomous ride-hail service, Waymo One, and expand our 24/7 operations with no human driver across multiple major U.S. cities. Today, residents of Metro Phoenix and San Francisco rely on Waymo to commute, run errands, meet friends and get a safe ride home as part of their daily lives.

Driving Research Forward: The Waymo Open Dataset Updates and 2023 Challenges

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo’s recent technology advancements and rapid expansion across Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles wouldn’t be possible without the underlying innovative research that helps drive our progress forward. As a pioneer in the AV industry, we have continuously contributed to the research community through publishing and expanding the Waymo Open Dataset — one of the largest and most diverse autonomous driving datasets ever released. Today, we are excited to announce the latest expansion of the dataset with even more sensor data and labels. We are also launching our new and exciting 2023 Waymo Open Dataset Challenges -- this is our 4th annual Challenge edition, and we invite all researchers to participate!

New vibes for your rides with iHeartRadio

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo has teamed up with iHeartRadio to provide a new in-car audio experience for Waymo One trips in our Jaguar I-PACE vehicles. Our thousands of riders in San Francisco and Downtown Phoenix can now pick a vibe for their ride by simply selecting “Music” on the passenger screens.

First Million Rider-Only Miles: How the Waymo Driver is Improving Road Safety

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo has achieved many global industry firsts. Each time we delight our riders and deliver on our mission safely, we are proudest. In January, we accomplished another first: we exceeded one million miles on public roads with no human behind the wheel. To put this into perspective, this equates to 40 trips around the Earth, or over 80 years of driving for the average American. But this number is not a meaningful measure of progress, without context. What’s more important is our safety performance over the course of these one million rider-only miles that demonstrates the safety benefits of the Waymo Driver. We’re sharing this safety performance data today to both acknowledge this next step on our journey, and to encourage greater transparency across the industry.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Erik

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: As a single dad in San Francisco, Erik needs a safe and reliable transportation method to get his kids around the city. Enter Waymo One. Since becoming a Trusted Tester over a year ago, Erik has taken over 450 rides with the Waymo Driver and has seen a marked improvement from then to now. Hear more from Erik about what’s gotten better and some of the interesting scenarios he’s encountered along the way, including details of his first rider-only trip.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Maya

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Maya isn’t just any Waymo One rider. In her 300+ rides with Waymo, she’s kept a detailed spreadsheet of every one so she can track changes and improvements to the service over time. Dozens of these rides have been rider-only trips, which we began offering to San Franciscans at the end of last year. Check out our Q&A with her below and this video to hear more from this seasoned Waymo One rider.

Wheels up for Waymo as we expand our 24/7 rider-only territories

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As travelers across the country prepare to fly home for the holidays, they’ll have a brand new transportation option when they land in Phoenix: a fully autonomous Waymo ride, with no one behind the wheel.

Waymo's Collision Avoidance Testing: Evaluating our Driver’s Ability to Avoid Crashes Compared to Humans

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It’s happened to almost every driver: that terrifying moment when you have to urgently brake or swerve to avoid a collision caused by other road users’ behavior. Like a human driver, the Waymo Driver encounters potential hazards — from a vehicle running a red light to a car suddenly changing lanes. To evaluate our Driver’s ability to avoid or mitigate crashes in situations like these, we developed a comprehensive scenario-based testing methodology called Waymo’s Collision Avoidance Testing (CAT). To maintain transparency and provide the public with a deeper understanding of our safety approach, we are publishing a paper to describe how we judge good collision avoidance performance, how we identify the right set of scenarios to test, and the testing tools we’ve developed.

What’s in the forecast: Using cutting-edge weather research to advance the Waymo Driver

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Weather shapes our lives, from dictating what we wear, to how we commute, to whether school is in. At Waymo, we've invested in understanding weather and its impact on our technology since our earliest days as Google's Self-Driving Car Project. We've learned a lot along the way that has enabled us to drive autonomously in various conditions, provide better service to our riders and partners, and advance our technology to serve more cities in the future.

Making air travel more convenient at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Phoenix holds a special place in our hearts at Waymo, as it’s where we were the first company to launch a public ride-hail service with no human behind the wheel over two years ago. That’s why we’re excited to take the next step by initiating the industry’s first-ever paid trips to and from an airport at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, starting today.

Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles will be Waymo’s next ride-hailing city, joining Phoenix and San Francisco as we expand to more locations.

Launching the Waymo Accessibility Network

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Since our founding, Waymo has partnered with and listened to advocates for people with disabilities. As we continually improve our technology, we will strive to put individual passengers – with their diverse needs and experiences – at the center of our product to co-create the Waymo One ride-hailing service together.

Benchmarking AV Safety: Demonstrating how the Waymo Driver outperforms the collision responses of always attentive human drivers via industry-leading assessment methods

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Response Time paper presents a framework Waymo uses for analyzing and modeling response timing in a crash-imminent situation on the road. It helps establish how well an attentive and non-impaired human driver avoids collisions to provide a reference point on the spectrum of human driving against which autonomous vehicle performance can be assessed.

Waymo and Swiss Re’s new research collaboration

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo and Swiss Re, one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, today announced a research collaboration aimed at developing new risk assessment methodologies, which would provide guidance for the insurance industry in properly assessing AV risk.

Welcoming Elisa de Martel, Waymo’s Chief Financial Officer

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’m so pleased to share that Elisa de Martel, a finance executive with 20+years of experience leading private and public companies, is joining Waymo as our Chief Financial Officer. Elisa brings powerful value to Waymo with her depth of financial leadership experience spanning both tech and traditional automotive industries. Elisa’s global, strategic perspective positions us well as we deploy and commercialize the Waymo Driver across multiple geographies and vehicle platforms.

Informing smarter lidar solutions for the future

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Lidar — which helps the Waymo Driver perceive the world around it in 3D — has become more common than ever before. Car manufacturers are integrating it into driver-assist systems; phone manufacturers are using it to enhance augmented reality capabilities, and robot vacuums even rely on it to better map the layout of your home. At Waymo, lidar is core to our sensor suite, with its ability to perceive objects and other road users with industry-leading resolution, up to hundreds of meters away, across a range of conditions.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Eva

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Waymo One is the perfect match for Eva’s busy lifestyle. From running errands to exploring new parts of San Francisco, Waymo provides her the reliability and convenience she needs to get around. Read on to see how she’s enjoying the Trusted Tester program so far and hear some of her feedback for how the service can get even better.

New Waymo One features inspired by DOT's Inclusive Design Challenge

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Accessibility is something we care deeply about at Waymo, as our mission is to help improve road safety and mobility for all. As this topic is such a core part of what we do, we were honored to make it to the semifinals in the U.S. Department of Transportation Design Challenge. DOT’s goal was to generate design solutions that enable people with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities to use automated vehicles to access jobs, healthcare, and other critical destinations. The DOT is helping to further creative product thinking around inclusive mobility, and we’re proud of the features that we designed and integrated into our Waymo One service.

Meet some of our summer 2022 interns

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo has welcomed interns for years at our offices in the US and UK to join us in contributing their expertise to further developing our autonomous driving system and helping us scale our business. While their backgrounds vary greatly, each and every one of our awesome interns brings unique perspectives, a desire to tackle challenging problems, and an interest in improving the world’s access to mobility.

Why I Ride with Waymo: John N.

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: We caught up with SF Trusted Tester John N., a local small business owner, while he was grabbing some lunch at Zazie (one of his favorite spots in the city!). He clued us in on his love for getting around in our I-PACE vehicles, what he hopes we add to the service next, and his vision for how autonomously driven vehicles can make transportation more equitable across San Francisco.

Waymo at CVPR 2022: A hub for real-world innovation and groundbreaking research

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo is proud to host and participate in multiple sessions at the 49th Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) next week. We will present some of our recent state-of-the-art work in autonomous driving research—one of the most complex and practical applications of computer vision.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Candace

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Meet another one of our Trusted Testers: Candace, a software engineer who just moved to San Francisco. Learn more about how they’re using the service, what some of their early feedback is, and whether or not this is something they’d recommend to others in the city (spoiler alert: yes!).

Waymo Via and Uber Freight partner to accelerate the future of logistics

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Rising shipping demand coupled with a growing shortage of drivers has brought the logistics industry to an inflection point, and the need for an autonomous trucking solution like Waymo Via has never been more apparent. To help accelerate this autonomous future, we’re partnering with Uber Freight to connect our technology with their platform and deploy autonomous trucks across their network.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Ralph

Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Dubbed a “Waymo fan boy” by his family, Ralph uses Waymo One to go work from his local coffee shop daily in Metro Phoenix. He appreciates the convenience of the service and how easy it is for him to get around without his own car. Read on to hear more about how Ralph got involved with Waymo years ago and what it’s like riding today.

Cities, freeways, airports: How we've built a scalable autonomous driver

Wed, 18 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Being an experienced driver means knowing how to handle a variety of road situations that can happen anytime, anywhere. At Waymo, we’re building The World’s Most Experienced Driver™. With over 20 million autonomous public road miles under its belt, the Waymo Driver is prepared to navigate the challenges of busy city streets, high-speed multi-lane roads, chaotic parking lots and more. Right now, the Waymo Driver is simultaneously providing fully autonomous rides in two locations—Phoenix’s East Valley and San Francisco—and is ready to scale further. In the coming weeks, we will begin rider-only trips —with no human driver behind the wheel— with our employees in Downtown Phoenix. Additionally, the Waymo Driver is beginning to drive at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, one of the

Why I Ride with Waymo: Christine

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Christine is an SF Trusted Tester who uses Waymo to pick up and drop off her five year old son at school. As a working mom, she appreciates the luxury Waymo gives her to spend time with her son on the way to school and the opportunity to get work done in a professional space on the way home. Read on to hear more about her experience and feedback so far.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Dalibor

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Dalibor is a new SF transplant, hailing from Pennsylvania. He lives and works in the Outer Richmond and so far has been loving using Waymo as a replacement for his personal vehicle. We caught up with him to hear more about his thoughts on the service and how it’s fitting into his new life in San Francisco.

Taking our next step in the City by the Bay

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This morning in San Francisco, a fully autonomous all-electric Jaguar I-PACE, with no human driver behind the wheel, picked up a Waymo engineer to get their morning coffee and go to work. Since sharing that we were ready to take the next step and begin testing fully autonomous operations in the city, we’ve begun fully autonomous rides with our San Francisco employees. They now join the thousands of Waymo One riders we’ve been serving in Arizona, making fully autonomous driving technology part of their daily lives.

To our fellow San Franciscans

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Our mission at Waymo is to make it safer and easier for people and things to get where they’re going. It’s in our name, which originated from the belief that there must be a better way forward in mobility.

Expanding the Waymo Open Dataset with new labels and challenges

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We launched the Waymo Open Dataset back in 2019 as one of the largest and most diverse autonomous driving datasets ever released for research. At the time, it consisted of multimodal sensor data from 1,000 driving segments. As a result of the overwhelmingly positive reception and high engagement, we have continuously evolved the dataset beyond its initial scope by almost doubling our Perception dataset size and introducing a Motion dataset enabling prediction tasks. The Waymo Open Dataset remains one of the most complete and comprehensive autonomous driving datasets, contributing to 500+ publications and providing high-quality data, which is complex and resource intensive to gather, to the research and academic community.

Utilizing key point and pose estimation for the task of autonomous driving

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Historically, computer vision relies on rigid bounding boxes to locate and classify objects within a scene; however, one of the limiting factors in detection, tracking, and action recognition of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, is the lack of precise human pose understanding. While locating and recognizing an object is essential for autonomous driving, there is a lot of context that can go unused in this process. For example, a bounding box won't inherently tell you if a pedestrian is standing or sitting, or what their actions or gestures are.

Enabling autonomous freight movement for C.H. Robinson’s customers

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As we continue commercializing our Waymo Via solution for Class 8 trucking, we’re partnering with C.H. Robinson, one of the world’s largest logistics platforms and a leader in the transportation industry, to integrate the Waymo Driver into supply chains and make autonomous freight movement a reality for their customers.

How we ensure the Waymo Driver operates safely in San Francisco

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Last year, Waymo expanded its testing in San Francisco and began welcoming new riders in the city. As we continue to expand our operations providing rides to more San Franciscans, we’re sharing even more on how we evaluate the safety of our technology and operations in the City by the Bay.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Rolinda

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Since launching the Waymo One Trusted Tester program in San Francisco earlier this year, we’ve given rides to hundreds of San Franciscans and tens of thousands more have signed up. We recently sat down with one of these Trusted Testers, Rolinda, a lifelong San Francisco resident who uses Waymo to traverse the city without the stress of driving or the burden of finding parking. Read on to hear more about her autonomous adventures and the value she finds in an autonomous ride-hailing service like Waymo One.

Establishing a long-term alliance with J.B. Hunt for autonomous trucking

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

2021 was a watershed year for Waymo Via when it came to deep industry collaboration, and 2022 will be no different. Starting the year off strong, we’re expanding our relationship with J.B. Hunt and entering into a long-term, strategic alliance to commercialize autonomous driving technology for trucking transportation together. This builds on the great success we shared with our initial trial runs in 2021 and the extraordinary relationship we have with their team already.

Accelerating mission velocity: Celebrating our progress in 2021

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The most innovative technologies can only be built when teams are laser-focused on a common goal. This year, the hard work and determination of our teams resulted in huge strides towards Waymo’s mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going.

Expanding our Waymo One fleet with Geely’s all-electric vehicle designed for riders first

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Over a decade into our journey building the World’s Most Experienced Driver, we’ve partnered with some of the world’s leading automakers to deploy our fully autonomous technology as we help people and things get where they’re going. So, we’re pleased to announce our latest OEM collaboration with Geely, a top global auto manufacturer.

What we learned from our initial trial runs with J.B. Hunt

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, we kicked off trial runs with J.B. Hunt to carry freight autonomously for one of their leading customers in Texas. This was part of a broader collaboration that combined the leader in autonomous driving technology with one of the largest and most reputable transportation logistics companies in the U.S.

Designed to deliver: Bringing the benefits of our 5th generation hardware to trucking

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, we're developing one core autonomous driving platform—the Waymo Driver—consisting of hardware and software, which builds the foundations of a Driver that can scale across multiple geographies, vehicle types, and use cases. Because we engineer an autonomous driver that can navigate these different modalities side by side, system requirements and skills learned from one vehicle platform benefit the other, and vice versa. As more of the first fully redundant, L4 Freightliner Cascadia trucks operated by the Waymo Driver begin hitting the road, we wanted to share how we've designed and engineered our fifth-generation hardware specifically for the rugged life of Class 8 trucking.

Meet Waymo at CES 2022

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

UPDATE, December 23, 2021: Based on quickly rising COVID-19 infection rates, Waymo has made the difficult decision not to participate in person at CES 2022. We are aiming to still virtually participate in some CES-related events. In particular, as part of our Self-Driven Women series, our co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana and our Global Head of Public Policy Michelle Peacock will speak at several virtual panel discussions with the Female Quotient, the official equality partner of CES 2022.

Waymo Via expands partnership with UPS to autonomous freight movement with Class 8 trucks

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

As we enter into the holiday season, this year’s delivery demand and the need for freight movement remains unprecedented, and Waymo Via will help fill critical needs for our partners during this time. That’s why we’re expanding our partnership with UPS to autonomous freight movement with Class 8 trucks, a natural next step following the strong and successful partnership we’ve had testing local delivery.

A fog blog: Understanding a challenge inherent to driving in San Francisco

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

If you check the weather for San Francisco, there's a one third chance you’ll see clouds or fog in the forecast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To ensure Waymo’s Trusted Testers can safely get where they are going, whether it’s to work in the misty morning or back home to a hazy Haight at night, we’re engineering the Waymo Driver to handle the challenges of fog.

Women on the ‘long haul’ of Waymo Via trucking

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

My husband was a truck driver, so I initially began truck driving so I could be with him. We have traveled together to every state in the U.S. and most of the provinces in Canada. I realized that my patience and attention to safety were valuable traits for a professional driver. When my husband and I saw a job listing for autonomous specialists, we decided to apply, even though we had never heard of autonomous trucking.

Introducing the Waymo Driver to New York City’s streets

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Waymo Driver has tested in dozens of cities spanning a diverse range of climates and topographies. Starting tomorrow, we’ll build on these learnings as we begin to map in New York City for the first time.

The Waymo Driver Handbook: Teaching an autonomous vehicle how to perceive and understand the world around it

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine you are driving through downtown San Francisco and a cyclist, traveling against the flow of traffic, cuts right in front of you. Or maybe you are navigating a narrow, two-way street with a car heading the opposite direction, and you nudge over for them to pass. Perhaps, you are driving late at night when an occluded worker pops out behind a truck, right into the middle of the street. These are just a few examples of the common yet complex scenarios the Waymo Driver encounters in cities like San Francisco.

Why I Ride with Waymo: John

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Today marks one year since we opened up Waymo One fully autonomous rides to any member of the public in Metro Phoenix. Since then, we’ve served tens of thousands of rider-only trips for thousands of riders, including John, who has taken more than 400 rides over the past year. Not only is this more than any other Waymo One rider has taken, it's also more fully autonomous rides than anyone in the world has ever done! With such an honor, we wanted to talk with him for our latest Why I Ride and hear more about how he feels about Waymo One, with one year and hundreds of trips under his belt.

Common Waymo One Questions

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When you think about the people behind the Waymo Driver, you might think of the engineers writing the software algorithms or developing our state-of-the-art hardware. But there’s another group that deserves a lot of credit too: our riders.

Back to School and Back to Basics with Waymonauts

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Planner team works with basic physics, and variations of the above problem, regularly. The Waymo Driver has to calculate these equations for every object in a scene every time it wants to do something. So Jenny and her team members are constantly improving and optimizing the algorithms we use to do this on the vehicle.

Addressing transit mobility gaps: What Waymo, Valley Metro and ASU learned from serving paratransit riders and seniors

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In 2018, we shared our plans to work with Valley Metro, the Phoenix Metro area’s regional public transportation authority, to explore mobility solutions in a first-of-its-kind study that would use autonomous driving technology to complement the city’s existing transit network.

Welcoming our first riders in San Francisco

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Today, we’re excited to share the next step in our journey in the City by the Bay, with the kickoff of our Waymo One Trusted Tester program.

How we’ve built the World’s Most Experienced Urban Driver

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s our autonomous driving system—the Waymo Driver—in San Francisco earlier this year. It’s the kind of journey we’ve made tens of thousands of times since we first started driving autonomously in the city in 2009. As the Waymo Driver navigates dozens of vehicles and pedestrians, it’s met with a huge variety of other road users—from double-parked vehicles whose riders can hop out at any second, to scooters cutting across traffic even when they have a red light.

Expanding our Waymo Via operations

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

These past few months have been busy for Waymo Via. We’ve been ramping up our testing to help advance our fifth-generation Waymo Driver on Class 8 trucks, hauling freight for carriers’ top customers, and continuing our ongoing work with Daimler Trucks to develop a robust L4 redundant vehicle platform. To help support all of these initiatives, we’re scaling up our operations across Texas, Arizona, and California, and today, we’re sharing a few exciting updates on our progress.

Simulation City: Introducing Waymo's most advanced simulation system yet for autonomous driving

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, we use simulation to advance the Waymo Driver's abilities in several ways. We can amplify our number of real-world miles to accelerate our Driver’s learning, prepare for rare events, train new models, validate new software, and even evaluate how the Waymo Driver would have performed in actual fatal crashes that have already occurred. For simulation to be valuable as a learning tool, it has to closely match our target domain – performing rider-only trips for Waymo One and goods delivery trips for Waymo Via in the real world– in which case, there is only one question that matters. Did the Waymo Driver safely and efficiently complete the trip?

Why I Ride with Waymo: Sophia

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: We first heard from Sophia on social media, where she’s been sharing fun videos of her Waymo One rides. We reached out to learn more about what intrigued her about Waymo in the first place and how autonomous driving technology has become a part of her everyday life (and sparked a new passion!).

Waymo at CVPR 2021: Building the future of perception for autonomous vehicles

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Starting this weekend, researchers, developers, and engineers from all over the world will gather virtually for the 2021 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). As a pioneer in the autonomous driving space, Waymo will host and speak in multiple workshops presenting its recent research work.

Transforming mobility with the confidence of world-class investors

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

As we build, deploy, and commercialize the Waymo Driver, it’s gratifying to see so much interest in being part of our journey to transform mobility, making it safer, more accessible, and more sustainable along the way. So we’re proud to announce our latest investment round of $2.5 billion, with participation from Alphabet, Andreessen Horowitz, AutoNation, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Magna International, Mubadala Investment Company, Perry Creek Capital, Silver Lake, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Temasek, and Tiger Global. We’ll use this latest round of investment to continue advancing the Waymo Driver, as well as continuing to grow our team.

Beyond the bike lane: How we've built the Waymo Driver to share the road with cyclists

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, our team is more than engineers, designers, analysts, and autonomous specialists (what we call the trained human drivers behind the wheel) building the World’s Most Experienced Driver™. We are also cyclists, runners, equestrians, and active members of the communities in which we drive. So we know we have to keep the concerns of these vulnerable road users in mind as we create technology that can make our roads safer for everyone.

Waymo Via is working with J.B. Hunt to carry freight across Texas

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Getting goods where they need to go safely and easily is at the heart of Waymo Via’s mission. We’ve been carrying freight for customers since 2018, when we completed our first commercial pilot with Google’s Data Centers, and have continued to haul goods on behalf of other Fortune 500 companies across the southwest U.S. As we progress on this journey to commercialize the Waymo Driver for trucking, we’re now working with J.B. Hunt, one of the largest, most reputable, and most innovative transportation logistics companies in the U.S., to autonomously transport loads in Texas for one of their leading customers.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Ben & the Henderson Family

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s Note: In our next “Why I Ride with Waymo,” we catch up with the Henderson family. After moving to Phoenix in 2018, they quickly found a new mode of transportation, the Waymo Driver, when they signed up as part of our early rider program. Over the years, the Henderson family has experienced our technology transform and helped refine it through their great feedback.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Mike

Thu, 13 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: For Mike, Waymo One has become an essential way for him and his family to get where they need to go. They recently downsized to a one-car household and now rely on Waymo for critical trips, like commuting to and from work. Read more about his experience (and how he encouraged his parents and in-laws to ride) in today’s Why I Ride.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Barb

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s Note: In 2017, Waymo joined forces with a diverse group of organizations to create Let's Talk Autonomous Driving -- the world's first public education campaign to increase education and understanding around autonomous driving technology. In this Why I Ride with Waymo, we’ll hear from Barb Hoffman, who is a former executive director of our partner Red Means Stop, a traffic advocate organization dedicated to increasing awareness about the dangers and consequences of red light running.

Waymo’s Fully Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service Has New Features

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

People in Metro Phoenix who hail a ride with Waymo’s fully autonomous service, Waymo One, are experiencing the newest frontier of mobility with recent service upgrades and in-car features.

Capstone of my career: Email from John Krafcik to Waymonauts

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Dear Waymonauts, After five and a half exhilarating years leading this team, I’ve decided to depart from my CEO role with Waymo and kick-off new adventures. To start, I’m looking forward to a refresh period, reconnecting with old friends and family, and discovering new parts of the world. And I’ll continue to serve as an advisor to Waymo, as you expand the world’s first autonomous public ride-hailing service, Waymo One, and ramp our autonomous delivery product with Waymo Via.

Expanding the Waymo Open Dataset with Interactive Scenario Data and New Challenges

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most important things an intelligent driver needs to do is to understand what the road users around it are going to do next. Is that pedestrian trying to cross the street? Is that car parallel parked, or about to pull into my lane? Will that speeding vehicle stop at the stop sign?

Replaying real life: how the Waymo Driver avoids fatal human crashes

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Road safety is a major, global public health crisis. More than 1.3 million people die on the world’s roads every year, according to WHO. That’s more people than die from HIV/AIDS, and is equivalent to a passenger plane’s worth of people crashing every single hour—or one death every 30 seconds.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Jesse

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: We love seeing our Waymo One riders share their experience with the world. After catching this video of one of Jesse’s recent rides, we reached out to him to get more info on how it went. In the Phoenix area and want to experience a fully autonomous ride for yourself? Just download the Waymo app and hail one instantly!

Expanding our testing in San Francisco

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo’s story starts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since early 2009, when we completed our first 1,000 autonomous miles across California, we’ve driven the length and breadth of the region, becoming intimately familiar with the many unique challenges of driving in San Francisco and the surrounding area.

Introducing: Black@Waymo

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This month, we’re recognizing Black History Month, an annual celebration of the experiences and contributions of Black and African Americans who have shaped and strengthened our country. This year, more than ever, we uphold the responsibility to recognize and highlight the importance of amplifying Black voices.

Your Top Questions About Autonomous Vehicles and the Future, Answered

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

How will autonomous driving technology shape how we live and move? What are the potential future benefits? We’ve compiled the answers to the top questions you have about what the future holds for autonomous vehicles and technology.

From Girl Scout to Waymonaut

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this month, we teamed up with Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX) to transport cookies for the annual Girl Scout Cookie Program with our Waymo Via truck fleet. Girl Scouts has long encouraged girls at every age and from all different backgrounds to explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields through their girl-centric programming. And at Waymo, we need a diverse group of people to develop the Waymo Driver and deliver on our mission, so we look for opportunities to open these dialogues with younger generations who will forge the future of autonomous driving technology.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Xavier

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Last year, we opened up our fully autonomous ride-hailing service to all of our Waymo One riders, and Xavier is one of the people who relies on this service to get where he needs to go. He shared this video with us, and we gave him a call to learn more about how he likes the service and what it’s like to ride with Waymo, solo.

Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, Waymo team up to transport cookies

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: This blog was originally published by Let's Talk Autonomous Driving on January 12, 2020.

Why you'll hear us saying fully autonomous driving tech from now on

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Last year was a big one for us - we raised our first external investment round, we rolled out the 5th generation of our Waymo Driver and we opened Waymo One to the public, among other milestones. As we get started in the new year, we’ll have even more to share with you. And when we do, you’ll see us using more deliberate language, referring to our fully autonomous driving technology, and no longer referencing “self-driving.”

How rider feedback shapes Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hailing service

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Feedback is important for companies to understand how customers feel about their products and services. When riders provide feedback to autonomous technology company Waymo, their input helps shape the future of a technology that could transform how people and things move around.

Building a safer mobility future

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I'm thrilled to join Waymo as Chief Safety Officer, where safety is at the heart of the mission to expand access to mobility and save lives. Over the last 20 years, I've designed, tested, and deployed complex systems, and most recently served as Vice President of Safety, Quality, and Mission Assurance for Virgin Orbit. Prior to that, I served as Director of Safety and Mission Assurance for the Boeing Commercial Crew Program. I also held various leadership positions within Boeing's Space Division, designing and launching commercial and government satellites.

Sharing our safety framework for fully autonomous operations

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

On October 8th, Waymo opened its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to the general public in Phoenix. Right now members of the public are hailing vehicles with no human driver controlling the car – either in the vehicle or remotely – to help them get to where they’re going as part of their everyday lives.

Waymo and Daimler Trucks partner on the development of fully autonomous trucks

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Autonomous trucking is poised to improve road safety and offer greater efficiency across the logistics industry. As we configure the Waymo Driver to operate Class 8 trucks and unlock these benefits, we’re pleased to share that Waymo has entered a broad, global, strategic partnership with Daimler Trucks, the global market leader in large commercial vehicles.

In the cab with the Waymo Driver: How trucks help advance our self-driving technology

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In 2017, after nearly a decade of developing self-driving technology for passenger cars, we launched our trucking and local delivery program now known as Waymo Via. Since then, our autonomous Class 8 trucks have been tested in a wide variety of cities and environments in California, Georgia, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Utilizing the same core technology stack across all of our vehicles allows us to bring fully driverless trucks to the market safely and quickly.

Waymo is opening its fully driverless service to the general public in Phoenix

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Five years ago this month, Steve Mahan, the retired director of the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center, who lost his sight years before, took the world's first ride in a self-driving car on public roads. This little car, called Firefly, had a top speed of just 25 mph, and used a combination of lidar, radar, cameras, and massive on-board computing power to navigate the busy streets of Austin, Texas.

The Waymo Driver Handbook: How our highly-detailed maps help unlock new locations for autonomous driving

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

For any emerging technology to be trusted, it helps to first be understood. In the past, people could see how their cars worked, looking under the hood and tinkering with them with the help of a user manual. In 2020, vehicles have so much technology that they’ve become difficult for the general public to comprehend. We want to change that. With this blog series, we’ll unpack the different parts of our technology stack to explain the fundamentals of self-driving technology. How does the Waymo Driver perceive the world? How does it learn to understand its surroundings? How can it predict the intentions of other drivers and pedestrians? And how does it keep our riders safe? We’re starting with one of the foundational questions: how does a self-driving car know where it is?

The Waymo Driver’s training regimen: How structured testing prepares our self-driving technology for the real world

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine a tiny city where you control everything that happens on the streets. You manage how many cars zip down the roads and how fast they are going. You dictate how many cyclists are on a roundabout or whether they follow the road rules. The “weather” around the vehicle can change multiple times a day from blue skies and sunshine one minute to heavy rain showers the next, but only if you want it that way. One may say such a city doesn’t exist, but if you drive out to the middle of Merced County in California, you’ll find it at Castle, a former Air Force Base our team uses to help build the World’s Most Experienced Driver™.

Providing COVID-19 testing to our team in partnership with Verily

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The health and safety of our team is our top priority as we continue to navigate the global pandemic and gradually resume our driving operations. That’s why we’ve partnered with Verily, an Alphabet company focused on healthcare and life sciences, to provide integrated COVID-19 testing, symptom and exposure screening, and data analytics for our front-line team members and partners. Verily’s Healthy at Work program uses the best of current recommendations from federal, state and local authorities, and Verily’s operational, clinical, data science modeling and scientific testing capabilities. In addition to the rigorous COVID-19 safety protocols we’ve implemented, we believe that providing regular testing for our team, through Verily’s CLIA-certified lab in South San Francisco, will promote our high standards for workplace safety.

Self-Driven Women: Building a community of women developing the future of mobility

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

On August 26, we celebrated Women’s Equality Day. It marked the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote in the United States. It’s an important milestone in America’s history, though it wasn’t until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act passed allowing women of color to exercise their right to vote. This reminds us that over the past hundred years, there has been substantial progress toward gender equality, but the work is far from complete. At Waymo, equal opportunities are not just part of our culture, but are also an essential foundation for building truly inclusive technology and improving mobility for everyone.

Racers on your mark: Creating a space for students to engage with the full self-driving stack

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Last year around this time, I found myself on a racetrack in Hockenheim, Germany, at Formula Student Germany as a student on the MIT/Delft team. Formula Student is an international design competition, where students with various backgrounds, ranging from mechanical and software engineering to finance and marketing, join forces to design, build, and race a prototype self-driving racecar. This project was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life; seeing an idea transform from a concept pitch and a system architecture diagram to a car driving itself on a racetrack in Germany was extremely rewarding, but by no means easy.

Can Fully Autonomous Vehicles Help Drive Away Stress?

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

For many of us, driving can be one of the most stressful things we do in our day. Evidence suggests that sitting in traffic can harm a person’s psychological well-being. While there aren’t as many of us sitting in traffic jams these days, the onset of COVID-19 has added yet another level of stress to our roads in the form of increased speeding and crashes.

Waymo and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) expand autonomous driving technology partnership

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2016, we announced our very first OEM partner: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). Since then, we’ve worked closely with FCA to integrate our Waymo Driver into FCA vehicles, and together we’ve made self-driving history in the proven, capable, L4-ready Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan, including launching the first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service, beginning to offer fully driverless service to our riders, and driving in dozens of cities across diverse geographies and challenging weather conditions. Now, we’re pleased to share that we’ve strengthened our partnership with FCA in several important ways.

Meet the Winners of the Waymo Open Dataset Challenges

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In March 2020, we launched the Waymo Open Dataset Challenges, inviting researchers to build and test their machine learning models using Waymo’s diverse self-driving dataset. We received over 100 submissions from around the world and invited the winners to present their work at our virtual Workshop on Scalability in Autonomous Driving at CVPR 2020. Today, we are excited to introduce some of the winners and their learnings.

How Tech Works Into Phoenix's First, Last Mile Solutions

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Public transportation systems, such as buses and subways, are how millions of people are able to get around the cities in which they live. In 2018, Americans took 9.9 billion trips using public transportation. Access to public transit is especially important for people with physical disabilities or those who are blind and cannot drive. These systems are key to independent mobility.

Partnering with Volvo Car Group to scale the Waymo Driver

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo is now the exclusive global L4 partner for Volvo Car Group, a global leader in automotive safety, including its strategic affiliates Polestar and Lynk & Co. International. Through our strategic partnership, we will first work together to integrate the Waymo Driver into an all-new mobility-focused electric vehicle platform for ride hailing services.

10 Innovations That Make Driving Safer, and What Comes Next

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

June is National Safety Month, an important time to continue the dialogue about road safety, how far we’ve come, and where we are going.

Celebrating progress and recognizing the work that still needs to be done

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

June marks LGBTQ+ Pride Month, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identities, relationships, and allyship. There’s no one-size-fits-all way to celebrate Pride -- it means something different to each individual. Some view it as a holiday and many of us use Pride to focus on the work that still needs to be done. At Waymo, we will celebrate Pride in several ways throughout the month and also carry it with us throughout the year, led by our LGTBQ employee resource group (ERG), the Rainbownauts.

Key Conversations Checklist

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Many caregivers and family members wrestle with when and how to have a conversation with an aging parent or loved one about whether it’s safe for them to continue operating a car. We've created a checklist to help prepare you for the conversation.

VectorNet: Predicting behavior to help the Waymo Driver make better decisions

Thu, 14 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

One of the key qualities of a good driver is being able to anticipate and predict what others on the road might do. For example, what is the probability of another car merging into our lane or the cyclist in front of us making a left turn? The ability to accurately predict the intentions of other road users allows the Waymo Driver to make the safest possible decisions.

T. Rowe Price, Perry Creek Capital, Fidelity, and others join first round of investment in Waymo

Tue, 12 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo has closed an extension of the financing round announced on March 2, in which funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Perry Creek Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and other external investors participated, bringing the total size of the round to $3 billion.

Catching up with the Waymo Via trucking team

Fri, 08 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a lot happening with Waymo Via trucking these days. Since we kicked off our goods delivery efforts in 2017, our self-driving trucks have been fixtures on freeways across California and Arizona, our technology has become even more advanced, and our trucking team has grown rapidly.

Resuming our driving operations in Phoenix

Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Back in March, we decided to suspend our driving operations in response to COVID-19 to ensure the safety of everyone involved in our services and local communities. Starting this coming Monday, May 11, Arizonans will begin to see some Waymo vehicles back on the road. The first part of our tiered approach to safely resume our operations begins with our test fleet and responsibly progresses to serving Waymo One riders again.

Off road, but not offline: How simulation helps advance our Waymo Driver

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the world, affecting people’s lives and forcing many businesses to suspend their operations. At Waymo, we're actively monitoring the situation, taking steps to support our local communities, and contributing to COVID-19 response efforts. While Waymo has temporarily suspended its on-the-road operations as we put the health and safety of our riders, partners, and employees first, we are still driving our technology forward with our work in simulation.

Helping from home: Waymo’s response to COVID-19

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Our top priority will always be the safety of our team, riders, partners, and of course, the communities in which we drive. As the world navigates COVID-19, it’s been inspiring to see people come together - from a distance - to keep each other safe. At the forefront of this effort are the brave heroes in our hospitals, grocery stores, pharmacies, and other essential businesses, helping our neighbors most in need.

In the driver's seat: footage from our 2009-2010 1,000 autonomous mile challenge

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In early 2009, when Waymo was first founded as the “Google Self-Driving Car Project,” Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page challenged our first engineers to drive autonomously without human intervention or disengagements along ten challenging 100-mile routes in our home state of California. By December 2009, the team had completed their first route, and nine months later in mid 2010, we had wrapped up the last.

Using automated data augmentation to advance our Waymo Driver

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

To help safely navigate the complexities of the road, our self-driving technology needs to see and identify what’s around it. To perceive its surroundings, the Waymo Driver relies on our powerful custom sensor suite of lidar, cameras, and radars, while neural nets empower the “brain” of our self-driving system to understand the sensor data and respond to a wide range of scenarios.

Designing the 5th-generation Waymo Driver

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Designing a driver for autonomous vehicles is one of the things we do best here at Waymo, but few people are familiar with what that entails and how it differs from designing the car itself. Whereas a traditional car is one platform usually designed for one purpose, we’ve designed our recently unveiled fifth-generation Waymo Driver to apply to multiple vehicle platforms and power a variety of different use cases, from moving people with Waymo One to transporting goods with Waymo Via.

Announcing Waymo’s Open Dataset Virtual Challenges

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Last August, we invited the research community to join us in accelerating self-driving technology with the release of one of the largest multi-sensor self-driving datasets available today. Even as COVID-19 continues to develop, we are committed to fostering an environment of innovation and learning - one that can continue to grow and thrive in our temporarily virtual world. That is why today, we are launching the next phase of our program: expanding the Waymo Open Dataset by an additional 800 segments and inviting researchers to participate in Waymo’s Open Dataset Challenges.

Introducing the 5th-generation Waymo Driver: Informed by experience, designed for scale, engineered to tackle more environments

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, we’re building the World's Most Experienced Driver - our combination of hardware, software, and compute that powers vehicles to safely get people and things where they’re going.

Waymo raises first external investment round

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Today, Waymo is announcing our first external investment round, led by Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Mubadala Investment Company. Additional investors in this initial $2.25 billion close include Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz, and AutoNation, as well as Alphabet.

Seeing is Knowing: Advances in search and image recognition train Waymo’s self-driving technology for any encounter

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, we use machine learning to detect and classify different types of objects and road features. The powerful neural nets that make up our perception system learn to recognize objects and their corresponding behaviors from labeled examples of everything our Waymo Driver encounters, from joggers and cyclists, to traffic light colors and temporary road signs, or even trees and shrubs. Over the past decade we have built up an enormous collection of objects captured by our powerful custom-designed hardware.

Partnering with UPS to deliver on our mission

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve built the Waymo Driver so that it can be deployed across a variety of vehicle platforms, as well as business applications that encompass not only transporting people, but also transporting goods. At Waymo, our mission is to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going so it’s important that we focus on creating a safer driving experience for all types of vehicles, including those that deliver goods to our homes and businesses each day. The Waymo Driver can power a range of use cases from ride-hailing to trucking and logistics, to delivery, to public transportation and even personal cars (down the road!).

From hosted to host: The internship experience at Waymo

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Throughout my education, I interned at software companies of varying sizes -- from large, and well-established to small startups; then in 2017, I joined Waymo as part of its first intern class. In many ways, Waymo was the best of both worlds. I found the same energy, enthusiasm, and drive of a start-up, coupled with the stability and resources of a well-established company.

Designing a new transportation reality with ArtCenter College of Design

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This semester, Waymo partnered with ArtCenter in Pasadena, California for a Sponsored Project. While ArtCenter’s Sponsored Projects have evolved over the nearly 90-year history of the college’s corporate engagement, the intention and promise remain the same: high-quality, professional experiences that bring current industry challenges and opportunities into the classroom and provide students the context for imagining future solutions. Here to share more about their experience are Joseph, a 7th term Transportation Design student, and Nancy, a 7th term Product Design student.

Waymo One: A year of firsts

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

One year ago, Waymo became the first and only company in the world to launch a public self-driving ride-hailing service. We now have thousands of people using it in their everyday lives across the Metro Phoenix area and have enjoyed seeing how they rely on the Waymo Driver to get them where they need to be, whether that’s work, the grocery store, or a fun night out.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Micah

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In June, the City of Chandler and Waymo launched an autonomous vehicle ride-hailing program to evaluate employee productivity while commuting and potential fleet cost savings. In this Why I Ride with Waymo, Micah, the Economic Development Director for the City and a father of four, shares his experience being part of this first-of-its-kind pilot program.

Mission critical

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today is Veterans Day in the U.S., a day to recognize those who have served in the U.S. armed forces. At Waymo, we’re proud to have veterans from all of our armed services as members of our team. Each veteran brings a wealth of experience. In particular, during their time in the military, our veterans collaborate with diverse teams to accomplish missions. Collaboration, mission, and respect are also central to Waymo’s culture, and how we operate as a company.

Safety at Waymo | It’s not magic, it’s Waymo’s engineering!

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Halloween is a fun and exciting night. People dress up as robots, fairies, or their favorite superhero. Parents and children travel from house to house, creating a great sense of community. However, behind all of this fun is a scary reality: Halloween is one of the deadliest days of the year for pedestrians in the US.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Jordan

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Editor’s Note: In this “Why I Ride with Waymo” post, Jordan shares what makes Waymo One a relaxing and enjoyable service.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Jean

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this next “Why I Ride with Waymo” post we catch up with Jean. Although she often rides with Waymo with her husband, Bob, Waymo offers them different benefits. For example, Bob likes how Waymo One allows them to be a one car household, while Jean prefers the predictably of Waymo One, especially if she’s riding alone.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Bob

Thu, 10 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In the next “Why I Ride with Waymo” posts, we catch up with Bob and Jean. While they often use Waymo One together, the service offers them unique benefits. First, we will hear from Bob who shares how Waymo One allows them to be a one car household.

Waymo teams up with AAA to teach kids about self-driving

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, we’re passionate about educating everyone on self-driving technology. While we’re working to increase access to our ride-hailing program, Waymo One, that allows people to experience and learn about this technology first hand, we also want to do our part to make resources available to those who have not yet experienced this technology.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Nicole

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this “Why I Ride with Waymo” post, Nicole shares how driving with Waymo has made her more aware of how humans make some really unsafe decisions as drivers.

Waymo @ IAA Frankfurt 2019

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Our CEO John Krafcik took the stage at IAA Frankfurt auto show today to share more on our journey here at Waymo and where we’re going next. Here’s a recap of his remarks.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Winnie

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this “Why I Ride with Waymo” post, Winnie details how Waymo provides her newfound freedom today and how self-driving technology will give her generation even more independence in the future.

Let the races begin: Helping the next generation discover self-driving

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

When I entered graduate school at MIT in 2006, self-driving cars were primarily a research effort, highlighted by the DARPA Grand Challenges. While those competitions sparked so much passion and interest in the field during my student days, the last Grand Challenge for self-driving happened over a decade ago. What’s inspiring to me is how today’s students and volunteers are now creating their own self-driving competitions.

Driven by Waymo, Designed with Trust

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve had members of the public riding in our fully self-driving vehicles for over two years, first as part of our early rider program and more recently through our Waymo One commercial ride-hailing service. Now, we have over a thousand riders in Waymo One, some who have been with us since the very beginning and some who just took their first trip this week.

Safety at Waymo | Waymo and the Weather

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

While self-driving cars and human drivers alike are limited by the performance capabilities of the vehicle itself, and there are environmental conditions that no driver, human or technology, should drive in, AVs have the potential to improve one of the greatest performance limitations: visibility.

Waymo Open Dataset: Sharing our self-driving data for research

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Data is a critical ingredient for machine learning. Our vehicles have collected over 10 million autonomous miles in 25 cities; this rich and diverse set of real world experiences has helped our engineers and researchers develop Waymo’s self-driving technology and innovative models and algorithms.

Rain Testing in the Sunshine State

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Both human-driven and self-driving cars need to drive in many different weather conditions. Waymo is designing and testing our system to work safely and reliably in the toughest environments. Over the last few years our testing has taken us to snowy Novi, Michigan, rainy Kirkland, Washington, foggy San Francisco, and of course those dusty haboobs in Phoenix, Arizona. This month, Florida joins the list: we’re bringing both Waymo vehicles — including our Chrysler Pacificas and a Jaguar I-Pace — to the state to begin heavy rain testing.

Why I Ride with Waymo: The Gillespie Family

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this “Why I Ride with Waymo” post, Waymo One riders Tres and Amani give us the low-down on what it’s like riding in our self-driving cars. Some of their favorite things include having more time to enjoy quality time together and being able to avoid the hassle of finding parking when they are out and about.

Why Some Give and Take Could Help Self-Driving Cars Negotiate

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This month Anca Dragan, Waymo research scientist and UC Berkeley assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences (where she also heads up Berkeley’s InterACT lab) was awarded the Presidential Early Career Awardfor Scientists and Engineers. In this post, Anca tells us more about the work that led to the award, and what she is doing at Waymo.

How Evolutionary Selection Can Train More Capable Self-Driving Cars

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo’s self-driving vehicles employ neural networks to perform many driving tasks, from detecting objects and predicting how others will behave, to planning a car’s next moves. Training an individual neural net has traditionally required weeks of fine-tuning and experimentation, as well as enormous amounts of computational power. Now, Waymo, in a research collaboration with DeepMind, has taken inspiration from Darwin’s insights into evolution to make this training more effective and efficient.

Becky Bucich joins Waymo as Chief People Officer

Mon, 15 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As we continue to grow our team here at Waymo, we’re excited to share that Becky Bucich joins us as our Chief People Officer.

Giving back to our communities

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Being active members of the communities in which we live and work, including Arizona, California, Michigan, Texas, and Washington state, is central to our values at Waymo. While Waymo employees are encouraged to partake in community service throughout the year, WaymoServe is a month focused on volunteerism, designed to support what is meaningful to them. This year, during our third annual WaymoServe, employees across the country gave back over 600 hours of service.

Why I Ride with Waymo: The Anthony Family

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Meet the Anthonys, a family of three who appreciate the time back they get using Waymo One. They love being able to relax, catch up, and on some rides, sing along to their favorite music together!

Partnering with The Alliance in France, Japan, and beyond

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today we’re announcing that Waymo has entered into an exclusive partnership with Renault and Nissan on behalf of The Alliance to explore driverless mobility services for passengers and deliveries in France and Japan.

Stepping up to the plate for safety

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Growing up outside of Boston, family trips to watch the Red Sox play meant getting to ride the T, Boston's transit system, and getting to spend the day at historic Fenway Park. My favorite memories aren’t of what happened on the field or if the Sox won or lost; they’re the experience of being at the ball game. Yesterday, I got to share a similar experience with my son when Waymo, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), and the San Francisco Giants teamed up to host 50 fathers and their children at a game for Father's Day. This event celebrated the contribution that father figures make in their children's lives.

Opportunities for All @ Waymo

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This week, we teamed up with Opportunities for All to welcome 25 students ages 14–24 to our Mountain View office where we had the chance to tell them more about Waymo, and the job skills and career paths to join the AV sector. Aside from touring our headquarters and checking out our cars, the students were introduced to a variety of career paths across engineering, business, operations, and recruiting.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Amy & Paul

Tue, 14 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this “Why I Ride with Waymo” post, Amy and Paul fill us in on how Waymo fits into their everyday lives, from helping them get to work commitments to ensuring they always have a safe ride home from a night out.

Partnering with Lyft to serve more riders in Metro Phoenix

Tue, 07 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Six months ago, we launched Waymo One, our commercial self-driving ride-hailing service in the Metro Phoenix area. Over that time we’ve grown to serve over 1,000 riders who hail Waymo cars each day to commute to and from work, bring their kids to school, get to the grocery store, and even to avoid parking at trailheads before a big run.

Safety at Waymo | Self-driving cars & other road users

Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We were founded a decade ago on a mission to make our roads safer. Since then, we’ve been focused on building the world’s most experienced driver. Safely sharing the road is an important part of driving, and the Waymo driver tirelessly scans for objects around the vehicle — including pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles, road workers, animals, and obstructions — and then predicts their future movements based on information such as speed, trajectory, and road context.

Making Waymos in Motor City

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In January, we announced that we would open the world’s first factory 100% dedicated to the mass production of L4 autonomous vehicles. We wanted this facility to benefit from a location in southeast Michigan — the heart of the American automotive industry — and its strong talent base. We began looking for a facility that would allow us to quickly get up and running by mid-2019, while offering us the flexibility to continue to grow and expand our operations in Michigan over time and where there was a strong pool of talent across engineering, operations, and fleet coordination.

Android users: Download the Waymo app and sign up to ride

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Good news for our Metro Phoenix friends: Waymo’s ride-hailing app is now available on Google Play.

EmTech Digital Recap: How AI Makes Self-Driving Cars Possible

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This week our CTO Dmitri Dolgov sat down with MIT Technology Review’s Editor-in-Chief Gideon Lichfield at EmTech Digital. This year’s forum brought together experts from around the world to discuss advancements in AI in a variety of fields, from healthcare and public safety, to transportation and urban design.

Por qué uso Waymo: Priscilla

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

En nuestra primera versión de “Por qué uso Waymo” en español, Priscilla nos dice por qué Waymo One es el servicio de transporte en el que ella confía para trasladar a su hija a la escuela.

Expanding our Footprint in Arizona: Waymo’s Technical Service Center in Mesa

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today, we’re excited to announce that Waymo will open a technical service center in Mesa, a nearby city in Phoenix’s East Valley.At 85,000 square feet, this new space will more than double our capacity to service, maintain and grow our fleet of Waymo One cars and, over time, help us expand our team to employ up to hundreds more local Phoenicians. It’s just the latest step in our investment and commitment to this region.

Waymo & AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah team up to educate the public on self-driving

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For most Americans, the AAA name is synonymous with safe driving. Whether it’s coming to drivers’ aid on the roadside or helping people be more careful drivers, AAA has been an advocate for safety for more than a century, and in fact helped create the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). That’s why we’re thrilled to see their leadership extend to the future of self-driving cars.

Celebrating International Women’s Day @ Waymo

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today, I joined hundreds of women from Waymo to celebrate International Women’s Day. Waymo is recognizing women and their contributions throughout Women’s History Month with a variety of events and surprises. We asked individuals across our organization — both women and allies — to wear white in honor of suffragettes who paved the path for us.

Bringing 3D perimeter lidar to partners

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For over a decade, Waymo has been developing self-driving technology with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Roger & Sharon

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this “Why I Ride with Waymo” post, we hear from Roger and Sharon on how Waymo One is a perfect match for their active lifestyles.

Building Our Collective Future

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In celebration of Black History Month, I was honored to be asked to speak at Greenville High School in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Black History Month offers us a time to reflect on our history, and this invitation gave me the unique opportunity to reflect on my own.

Waymo @ Watermark

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, we’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and ensure that the products and experiences we design are impactful for all of our customers. I’m proud to be a member of one of our employee resource groups, Women of Waymo (WoW), a group of over 100 women and allies focused on creating an aware and inclusive Waymo for all.

An update on Waymo disengagements in California

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Each year California requires companies with AV testing permits in the state to report on their disengagements. These reports assist the state in its understanding of how well a self-driving car is doing its job.

Growing our team and business in Michigan

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In the US, the auto industry is synonymous with Michigan. Auto manufacturing has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state and built an economic engine that helps fuel the entire country. Today, Waymo is excited to announce that we’ll grow our business in Michigan, as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) voted to approve our effort to establish our manufacturing presence to build our self-driving vehicles in the state, creating hundreds of jobs along the way.

AutoML: Automating the design of machine learning models for autonomous driving

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, machine learning plays a key role in nearly every part of our self-driving system. It helps our cars see their surroundings, make sense of the world, predict how others will behave, and decide their next best move.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Shawn

Fri, 11 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s “Why I Ride with Waymo” post we chat with Shawn, one of the first Waymo One riders, about his experience and why he’s excited to see more autonomous vehicles on the road.

Learning to Drive: Beyond Pure Imitation

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This post — based on research we’ve just published* — describes one exploration to push the boundaries of how we can employ expert data to create a neural network that is not only able to drive the car in challenging situations in simulation, but also reliable enough to drive a real vehicle at our private testing facility. As described below, simple imitation of a large number of expert demonstrations is not enough to create a capable and reliable self-driving technology. Instead, we’ve found it valuable to bootstrap from good perception and control to simplify the learning task, to inform the model with additional losses, and to simulate the bad rather than just imitate the good.

Riding with Waymo One today

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today, we’re taking the next step in our journey to bring our self-driving service, Waymo One, to the public. We’ve invited early riders from our research program to be the first to access Waymo One and expect to gradually roll out so even more people can ride with us.

Waymo One: The next step on our self-driving journey

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today, we’re taking the next step in our journey with the introduction of our commercial self-driving service, Waymo One. We’ll first offer Waymo One to hundreds of early riders who have already been using our technology. Over time, we hope to make Waymo One available to even more members of the public as we add vehicles and drive in more places. Self-driving technology is new to many, so we’re proceeding carefully with the comfort and convenience of our riders in mind. At first, Waymo-trained drivers will supervise our Waymo One vehicles.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Alex

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

As part of our “Why I Ride with Waymo” series, we’ve been checking in with early riders (like Lilla and Samantha) to learn more about their experiences with Waymo. Today, Alex shares some of his favorite Waymo moments with us.

Waymo welcomes first Chief Safety Officer and Chief Commercial Officer

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We’re excited to share that Deborah Hersman will join Waymo as our first Chief Safety Officer, and Amee Chande will join as our first Chief Commercial Officer. These newly created positions, which will both report to our CEO John Krafcik, emphasize our commitment to public safety, and our first important steps toward commercialization.

Waymo Joins MADD to Tie One On For Safety

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Each year, as part of — Tie One On for Safety — Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) asks supporters to add a red ribbon to their cars as a way to remind people to always designate a sober driver. This year, Waymo is proud to join the cause by displaying red ribbons on our entire fleet of self-driving cars through New Years Day.

The very human challenge of safe driving

Mon, 05 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

At Waymo, our safety culture is core to everything we do. We have carefully developed our testing program in the past decade and over 10 million miles. Every day, our vehicles are testing in our private test facility and on city streets, and it is our responsibility to ensure the safety of our vehicles — for our test drivers, our passengers, and other road users.

A Green Light for Waymo’s Driverless Testing in California

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

When most people go to the DMV, they hope to leave with a permit that allows them to get behind the wheel. For Waymo, the best news is a permit that allows us to get out from behind the wheel. We’re excited to announce that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has just granted Waymo the first permit in the state to begin driverless testing on public roads.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Samantha

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

As part of our “Why I Ride with Waymo” series, we’ve been checking in with members of our early rider program to learn more about their experience using Waymo. We previously profiled Lilla, and next up is Samantha, who tells us how Waymo has become a part of her family’s everyday life.

Where the next 10 million miles will take us

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Our self-driving vehicles just crossed 10 million miles driven on public roads.

Why I Ride with Waymo: Lilla

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In April 2017, we launched our early rider program to learn how our fully self driving technology fits into people’s daily lives. Now, almost a year and a half later, well over 400 people ride with us every day ― to get to school, work, dinner with friends, and around town for errands, helping us shape the future of our service. Meet Lilla, one of our riders in Metro Phoenix, who shares her perspective on what it’s like to ride with Waymo.

Seeing is Knowing: Advances in search and image recognition train Waymo’s self-driving technology for any encounter

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 18:30:00 +0000

Getting ready for more early riders in Phoenix

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We launched our early rider program in Phoenix in April 2017, and today, hundreds of riders are using our fully self-driving vehicles to get around every day, with even more joining throughout the summer. To run this self-driving service, we rely on our local operations teams to maintain our vehicles, manage fleet logistics, and provide around-the-clock support to our riders.

Partnering with Valley Metro to explore public transportation solutions

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Public transportation is an integral part of our cities, providing vital social, economic, and environmental benefits. That’s why cities around the world invest significant resources to build and maintain public infrastructure — light rail, trains, and buses — that help people commute and move around.

Growing Waymo’s Partnerships in Metro Phoenix

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today, our early rider program is helping us build the world’s most experienced driver and a service that is letting people take a self-driving car to the places they go daily. We’ve been busy teaming up with partners this summer to create new experiences, and provide unique value for our riders.

Waymo’s early rider program, one year in

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

One year in, our early rider program and our extensive on-road testing is helping us build the world’s most experienced driver. In fact, our fleet of cars across the U.S. is now driving more than 24,000 miles daily; that’s the equivalent of an around the world road trip! Here’s a quick report on how our riders use Waymo, what we’ve learned, and what’s next.

Getting ready for more early riders in Phoenix

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Google I/O Recap: Turning self-driving cars from science fiction into reality with the help of AI

Tue, 08 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We took the stage at Google I/O, Google’s annual developer conference, to share details on how Waymo is using artificial intelligence (AI) to make fully self-driving cars a reality. If you’re familiar with our work, you know that AI and machine learning (ML) have played a critical role in moving us closer to our goal of bringing self-driving technology to everyone, everywhere.

Meet our newest self-driving vehicle: the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE

Tue, 27 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover are announcing an electrifying new partnership. We’re joining forces to design and engineer the world’s first premium electric fully self-driving vehicle, built for Waymo’s transportation service. This new self-driving Jaguar I-PACE blends Jaguar’s knack for innovative design with Waymo’s cutting-edge self-driving technology, designed and developed completely in-house.

Same driver, different vehicle: Bringing Waymo self-driving technology to trucks

Fri, 09 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo’s mission has always been to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around. So far, the focus has mostly been on people; last fall we put the world’s first fleet of fully self-driving cars on public roads in the Phoenix area.Now we’re turning our attention to things as well. Starting next week, Waymo will launch a pilot in Atlanta where our self-driving trucks will carry freight bound for Google’s data centers.

Recreating the self-driving experience: the making of the Waymo 360° video

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

To bring Waymo’s technology to life, we leaned on the unique format of 360 video.

Waymo reaches 5 million self-driven miles

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Waymo odometer rolled over to 5,000,000 in February: our self-driving cars have now covered five million miles on public roads.

The world’s longest and toughest ongoing driving test

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past nine years, we’ve put our vehicles through the world’s longest and toughest ongoing driving test.

Waymo’s fleet reaches 4 million self-driven miles

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

For more on our testing program and the steps we’ve taken to prepare our cars for full autonomy, see Waymo’s Safety Report.

Waymo’s fully self-driving vehicles are here

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

After more than eight years of development, we’re taking the next step toward unlocking the potential of fully self-driving technology. Starting now, Waymo’s fully self-driving vehicles — our safest, most advancedvehicles on the road today — are test-driving on public roads, without anyone in the driver’s seat. To date, Waymo vehicles have been operating on public roads with a test driver at the wheel. Now, in an area of the Phoenix metro region, a subset of our fleet will operate in fully autonomous mode, with Waymo as the sole driver. Over time, we’ll cover a region that’s larger than the size of Greater London, and we’ll add more vehicles as we grow.

Michigan is Waymo’s winter wonderland

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Now, just in time for the first snowfall of the season, Waymo self-driving cars will hit Michigan roads for the winter. Building on the snowy work we’ve done to date, we’ll be giving our vehicles even more practice driving in snow, sleet and ice. This type of testing will give us the opportunity to assess the way our sensors perform in wet, cold conditions. And it will also build on the advanced driving skills we’ve developed over the last eight years by teaching our cars how to handle things like skidding on icy, unplowed roads.

Waymo’s Safety Report: How we’re building a safer driver

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this week we helped launch the world’s first public education campaign on self-driving cars to help people better understand how this technology can solve some of the biggest safety challenges on our roads. Today, we’re building on these efforts by releasing our first-ever Safety Report. This report is a collection of many of the important lessons we’ve learned throughout the history of our self-driving program.

Let’s Talk Self-Driving Cars

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We’re joining forces with a diverse group of organizations to launch the world’s first public education campaign for fully self-driving cars.

What’s inside this trunk helps power our self-driving minivans

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Waymo’s self-driving vehicles can see 360 degrees, track thousands of moving objects simultaneously, and detect the subtle nuances of the road — like a cyclist’s hand signal. This kind of real-time understanding of the world requires not just advanced sensors and software, but a high-performance specialized computer to match.

How simulation turns one flashing yellow light into thousands of hours of experience

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Just like for human drivers, the key to learning is practice. That’s where our simulator comes in. Waymo’s simulator is a realistic virtual world where we can recreate every real-world mile we’ve driven. Each day, as many as 25,000 virtual Waymo self-driving cars drive up to 8 million miles in simulation, testing out new skills and refining old ones. Like athletesvisualizing the playing field, our virtual cars envision various scenarios and practice maneuvers that help them safely navigate the real world.

Scenes from the street, August 2017

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Our vehicles understand that emergency vehicles behave differently than ordinary trucks, cars, and motorcycles — and that we need to behave differently around them. In this example, our car was stopped at a stoplight. Our light had turned green, but we detected an ambulance approaching from the right (the purple rectangle with two little red and white symbols on top), so we remained stopped as it passed through the intersection.

Beating the Heat: Thermal Testing in Death Valley

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Our self-driving vehicles need to operate reliably and safely in all sorts of conditions, whether sun or snow, extreme cold or oppressive heat. Because we develop both our self-driving hardware and software in-house, Waymo’s engineers are able to design a complete system that can work reliably in the toughest environments.

Recognizing the sights and sounds of emergency vehicles

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Whether it’s the high shrills of a fire truck or the flashing lights of a police cruiser, it’s important for every driver to recognize the telltale signs of an emergency vehicle. Over the last few years, we’ve been teaching our self-driving cars to detect and respond to everything from fire trucks and ambulances to police cars and police motorcycles. Last month, we kicked off our latest efforts to improve the way we detect emergency vehicles.

Well-oiled and squeaky-clean: Partnering with Avis to maintain our self-driving fleet

Tue, 27 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

All vehicles — yes, even ones that drive themselves — need a tune up every once in awhile. With our fleet of self-driving cars growing to 600 minivans, and with people taking trips through our early rider program, we want our cars to always be ready for the road. That’s why we’re bringing on Avis Budget Group to support and maintain our fleet in Phoenix, Arizona.

From post-it note to prototype: The journey of our Firefly

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2013, our prototype vehicle was nothing more than post-it note origami. This miniature paper car was the product of countless hours dreaming up what a fully self-driving vehicle could look like. Should it be a space-age batmobile? A decked-out entertainment pod? Or perhaps a living room on wheels? In the end, we landed on the friendly two-seater vehicle, with no steering wheel or pedals, and a computer under the hood to handle every part of driving. When the post-it note materialized into a real vehicle, neighbors noted the pod-like design, calling it the koala car or gumdrop. Our team affectionately nicknamed it “Firefly.”

Apply to be part of Waymo’s early rider program

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Like many Americans, Ted, Candace and their four kids have a busy driving routine — heading to work, to school, soccer practice, student council, choir rehearsal and more. Except Ted and Candace aren’t commuting in a typical car. Over the last month, this family, along with a handful of Phoenix, AZ residents, has been riding around in Waymo’s fleet of self-driving vehicles. They’re among the very first people in the world to take part in Waymo’s early rider program.

From pro-snowboarder to Waymo Engineer

Thu, 30 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Having been out of school for almost a decade, engineering didn’t come easy. Andrew had to re-learn the most basic of math skills and almost gave up multiple times. But just as he devoted countless hours to achieve his dream of participating in the X Games, he relied on the same determination to graduate, land internships at NASA and become a systems engineer at Waymo.

At TEDxBigSky, Andrew discusses how the concept of “escape velocity” helped him test his own limits.

A note on our lawsuit against Otto and Uber

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Competition in the self-driving space is a good thing; it pushes everyone to develop better, safer and more affordable technology. But we believe that competition should be fueled by innovation in the labs and on the roads, not through unlawful actions.

Introducing Waymo’s suite of custom-built, self-driving hardware

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In May of 2016, we sat down with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to collaborate on building 100 new Waymo self-driving Pacifica minivans. With these vehicles on the roads, the Pacifica minivan is the most advanced self-driving car to date. Thanks to years of in-house research and development, these minivans are equipped with Waymo’s all-new custom-built fully-integrated hardware suite.

Accelerating the pace of learning

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Despite today’s cars getting smarter and more advanced, road fatalities in the U.S. are on the rise. We know that human error is involved in 94 percent of all crashes. That’s why we’re working harder than ever to bring self-driving cars, that don’t get tired or distracted, to our roads.

A first look at our Waymo fully self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans

Sun, 18 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

As we get fully self-driving cars ready for the road, we’ll need more types of vehicles to refine and test our advanced driving software. That’s why in May we teamed up with FCA to work on adding 100 self-driving ChryslerPacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo’s fleet. With this great new minivan on the road in our test markets, we’ll learn how people of all ages, shapes, and group sizes experience our fully self-driving technology.

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