Waymo permitted to start commercial service with self-driving cars
Google subsidiary Waymo has won approval to open a commercial ride-hailing service with autonomous cars. No human driver will be on board when the fleet starts to pick up passengers in Phoenix, Arizona. It is the first such service in the USA.
Waymo,got a permit in late January from the Arizona Department of Transportation to operate as a Transportation Network Company, Bloomberg quotes Ryan Harding, a spokesman at the state agency. Around the same time, Waymo had announced its intention to buy “thousands” of Chrysler’s Hybrid Pacifica vans it had been using for autonomous test drives reportedly.
Transportation Network Companies are the likes of Uber and Lyft and similar to them, Waymo wants to offer its service via app and online in Arizona. No prices have been released but given that the self-driving cars come without drivers, they may be pretty competitive and Waymo hopes to start the service within 2018.
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