Waymo Starts Driverless Passenger Service In Austin, Texas

Robotaxi Waymo is starting commercial operations in Texas. (photo: x @wymo)

Jakarta - Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet's, announced on Tuesday March 5 that it will start driverless passenger services for its employees in Austin, Texas starting Wednesday, March 6.

Waymo is continuing its expansion plan at a time when its main competitor, Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, postponed its operations in the United States after an accident hit a pedestrian.

The company said the service would be available in an area of 43 square miles in the city, including downtown Austin, Barton Hills, Sungard, East Austin, and Hyde Park.

Waymo said it would open their ride-hailing program Waymo One, to the public in Austin on the coming date, adding that it would make Austin the fourth ride-hailing city after San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

"Our disciplined-planned placement in the capital city of Texas brought us one step closer to safely benefiting fully automated drivers to millions more people," said Waymo chief product Saswat Panigrahi.

The company has the approval to start their fully paid driverless robotaxi service in Los Angeles and several cities around San Francisco, by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Waymo and Cruise have faced outreach to their self-driving services following a collision with the public.

A Waymo robotaxi was attacked and set on fire in February while stopping amid Chinese New Year celebrations inkunci San Francisco, following an incident where another Waymo car hit a cyclist at a city intersection.