We wondered what Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai meant when he said on their earnings call last Thursday that for Waymos, “there is future optionality for personal ownership.”
Well, we only had to wait a minute to find out. Waymo announced today that they’re developing autonomous technology with a little automotive manufacturer you may have heard of: Toyota.
Tucked into the announcement, Waymo also plans to release a generalizable autonomous driving system for any given vehicle. Read our full analysis!
I was in San Francisco last week and got to take Waymo several times. Truly a surreal experience and if properly implemented seems like it’s very much our future.
That’s my exact reaction to Waymos (also San Francisco). Both surreal and probably the direction of all automotive transit.
It will be fascinating to see just how autonomous this package will be, and where it can and cannot go. Will the vehicle be able to drive with no occupants? Can it handle gravel roads, tow a trailer?
The Waymo cabs drive without occupants all the time, so assuming that it’s driving in a city that it’s familiar with (right now that’s LA, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin), I don’t see why the consumer version wouldn’t be able to.
I want to send the thing further down the river to wait for me on a whitewater trip, that would save so much hassle.
So, they do have details in the source docs: they specifically reference both ADS and ADAS.
ADAS is currently a Tesla FSD-type experience. You need an attentive human in the driver’s seat (for now). It’s a driver’s aid.
ADS is the wild west. That’s what Waymo currently provides in their autonomous fleet. No occupants, no problem.
I am stoked to see how it does what Toyota trucks do best, which is hauling trailers and going either down rough roads or going entirely off-road. I wasn’t mentally ready for this news today, so I have no idea what this means for the fully off-road experience.
I’d be very surprised if the system will work entirely off road, but gravel access roads would be amazing.
That’s sick! If I could buy a simple car to take me to/from work automatically, I’d absolutely get that. My state seems intent on not rolling out better mass transit, so this would at least let my commute not suck nearly as much.
Seriously! Amazing.
For me, my commute is easy, but I like road-tripping. I’ve got a flight ceiling of about 6 hours where it stops being fun. I’ve got a destination about 12 hours out that I love (Hot Springs AR, it rocks). I’d go to Hot Springs way more often if I didn’t need to drive it, or even if I could flip a switch and take a break safely.
We do road trips as well, and it would be a lot more fun if I could just take some motion sickness meds and play video games or watch a movie or something.
I just hope that the consumer version will give you the option to change your route, cause the Waymo taxis love to drive through random neighborhoods with a 25 MPH speed limit and increase your travel time, instead of sticking to major roads.
They also have a tendency to make illegal turns, randomly brake for no reason (especially in the middle of a turn), and they love to slam on the gas and accelerate as fast as possible, only to drive 5 MPH under the speed limit.
That said, I still trust them more than the average driver on the road. They just need to work out the kinks.
Autonomous off roading?
