JAKARTA - Waymo is expanding its robotaxi services in Phoenix and San Francisco to attract new customers, generate more revenue, and prove that autonomous cars are not just a mere trend. In Phoenix, Waymo's autonomous cars will cover a total of 180 square miles or about double the current and quadruple maps of the region served when they first launched ride-hailing operations in 2020.
Two different service areas, Phoenix City and the East Valley community in Tempe, Gilbert, Mesa, and Chandler, will be connected for the first time. Waymo's autonomous car will also serve Scottsdale's city known for its spa resort and golf course.
Waymo juga menambahkan tempat pick-up baru di Bandara Sky Harbor Phoenix yang dianggap penting untuk potensi penghasilan. Dan kini Waymo memungkinkan hingga empat penumpang di kendaraan autonomnya. Di San Francisco, perusahaan kini mencakup seluruh peninsula dan menjaperasi layanan robotaxi gratis 24/7. Meski demikian, sektor timur laut kota, termasuk Fisherman's Wharf dan North Beach, masih hanya dapat diakses oleh Trusted Testers Waymo yang merupakan karyawan dan tamu yang telah mendaftar untuk menguji coba fit tertentu.
However, business operating robotaxi services will remain difficult as long as there are restrictions on where vehicles can operate. Human-driven services such as Uber and Lyft do not have such restrictions. In addition, customers can become easy to switch to other services that promise shorter waiting times and few restrictions on where they can travel.
Waymo hopes to start charging travel costs in San Francisco after obtaining permission to do so from the California Public Utilities Commission. Overall, the two cities represent most of Waymo's current operations.
"We have served 10,000 fully autonomous trips with general passengers every week," said Waymo chief product Saswat Panigrahi, quoted by The Verge. "I want to make it clear that it is an external passenger; it does not include the journey we offer to our own employees."
The arrival of this news coincides with the city of San Francisco struggling to deal with an increase in the number of autonomous vehicles on their roads. Apart from Waymo, Cruise from GM also operates a small fleet of autonomous vehicles as part of ridehail services.
However, recently, there have been a number of incidents, including blocked roads and buses hit from behind, prompting some officials to ask the companies to slow down their expansion plans.
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However, Waymo insists that its vehicles continue to increase and that past errors will not be repeated by the company's artificial intelligence (AI) taxi fleet. "Now, as part of the fully autonomous deployment of vehicles, it is clear that we are responding to additional learning, and we will put safety at the forefront, especially," said Panigrahi.
Recently, the fog in San Francisco made Waymo's five autonomous vehicles stop, causing minor traffic jams, according to The Washington Post. Officials from district transportation agencies have written to regulators, calling on companies providing autonomous cars to slow down their expansion plans. They cited recent incidents involving autonomous vehicles stopping and blocking traffic and blocking emergency control officers.
"We are discussing a unique situation where, for example, ideal behavior in potentially unsafe situations is sometimes to pull over to the right," Panigrahi said. "That's what you want a competent driver to do."
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