World’s Largest Autonomous Driving Service Area Officially Launched
Phoenix
180 square miles corresponds to 466 square kilometers. In just five months, Google’s Waymo has doubled the size of its robotaxi service in Phoenix. This coverage is equivalent to one-third of the entire urban business district of Phoenix.
In contrast, the goal of this year’s Beijing Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone is to expand the city to 500 square kilometers. Now Google Waymo is one step ahead in Phoenix, USA on its own.
Phoenix service area doubled relative to December 2022. At present, Waymo’s Robotaxi service area in Phoenix, USA has reached 180 square miles (about 466 square kilometers).
This number is a 3x expansion from their initial 2020 service area in Phoenix. And according to the official introduction, this is the world’s largest fully autonomous driving service area.
As a horizontal comparison, take the Beijing Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone as an example. In the current 3.0 construction stage, the plan is to promote the construction of a surrounding area of 100 square kilometers on the basis of the 60-square-kilometer demonstration zone (Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone). , and gradually expanded to a total of 500 square kilometers in Beijing this year.
But having said that, after Waymo expanded in Phoenix, what has changed? It is very intuitive that it connects downtown Phoenix and the East Valley area. Covers Scottsdale for the first time and nearly all of Tempe.
And now there are more routes to both Chandler and Mesa. In addition, in order to meet the growing passenger traffic, they have also added a new Robotaxi pick-up and drop-off station near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The Phoenix Skytrain 44th Street light rail station opened last December and is now expanding to 24th Street. In this way, it also provides more convenience for passengers to and from the airport.
In terms of use, there is no need to apply and wait in Phoenix, just download the APP “Waymo One”, and you can randomly call a driverless taxi.
In terms of charges, according to feedback from foreign netizens, it takes 17 minutes for Waymo’s Robotaxi to arrive at the Casa Corazon restaurant from the 44th Street station of the sky train, and it costs $17.09.
By comparison, an Uber taxi would cost as little as $29 for the same pick-up and drop-off location.
With the continuous expansion of the service area, Waymo hopes to provide more travel services for passengers in more places.
San Francisco and Los Angeles are also expanding, and Phoenix is where Waymo is currently most commercially successful. 180 square miles, 24×7 operations, and most importantly, the ability to bill passengers.
However, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the progress is actually not smooth. First look at San Francisco. Since November last year, Waymo has opened the unmanned Robotaxi service to the public here, and it is also operating 24×7.
Thousands of passengers from outside San Francisco have come to experience it.
At present, in most areas of San Francisco, you can use the app to experience unmanned vehicles for free, but you need to apply to join the waiting list and then wait for the notification.
According to officials, tens of thousands of people are already on their waiting list.
Now, Waymo’s new goal in San Francisco is to increase the number of Robotaxi fleets and expand the scope of service, which will extend to Fisherman’s Wharf and North Beach areas.
As for Los Angeles, Waymo officially announced in October last year that it will start Robotaxi operations here, which is to become the third city where Waymo landed.
The latest development is that test operations will be carried out in several central areas of Los Angeles in the future.
Perhaps more importantly at this stage, Waymo needs to obtain a license from the California Public Power Commission (CPUC) to charge passengers, so as to accelerate the pace of commercialization in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In general, Phoenix and San Francisco are the main positions of Google Waymo. Their current Robotaxi accumulated driving mileage has exceeded 20 million miles, which corresponds to 32.19 million kilometers.
Moreover, their Robotaxi is now able to provide passengers with more than 10,000 rides per week, which does not include internal staff rides.
According to Waymo’s plan, they hope to provide passengers with more than 100,000 services per week by next summer, which is an increase of 10 times.
Waymo is confident in this because Phoenix and San Francisco are, according to them, two of the most lucrative and fastest-growing markets in the ride-hailing industry in the US.
As for whether this goal can be achieved, it may depend on the expansion speed of Waymo’s unmanned vehicles and the progress of testing in the new city of Los Angeles.
Leave A Comment