Waymo to expand driverless testing in Mesa
to work at the Mesa facility will include self-driving fleet technicians and operations workers, she said.
“We offer competitive compensation packages at Waymo, including base salary and other perks,” Hatathli said, declining to directly answer the average wages paid. When the service first launched in Arizona, test drivers were offered $20 an hour.
“Keep an eye on our careers site where we’ll post up specific job openings over weeks and months to come,” she said.
Paid service expanding
In December, Waymo launched a paid ride service called Waymo One using its autonomous vehicles, which runs much like Lyft or Uber services, though safety drivers still sit behind the wheel in those vehicles most of the time. Now, the early rider and Waymo One services operate simultaneously.
Initially, the Waymo One service was only available to about 400 people who were pre-screened by the company to participate as early riders, and then invited by the company to use Waymo One.
Company officials said the goal was to grow the service over time to become a national, and then international, service available to the broader public. Hatathli would only say the service now is available to “several hundred” participants in Arizona and has no date to expand beyond the state.
“As the service scales, we want to
“Metro Phoenix offers everything we’ve needed to build safe and reliable self-driving technology: a large area with broad, yet complex, city streets to practice on; a wide-spread suburban population that relies heavily on vehicle transport; and of course, lots of gorgeous sunny days to drive in while we also invest in further weather testing.”
make sure Waymo One riders’ experience is excellent, which means continuing to fine tune our driving style, creating a customized rider experience, making routes more efficient, and streamlining pick-up and drop-off locations,” Hatathli said.
“In addition to the learning from the millions of miles we’ve logged, we’ve received incredible feedback from our riders and the community to improve the experience for people inside and outside the vehicles,” Hatathli said.
Arizona a good test ground
Arizona is a good place to expand for a variety of reasons, the company said.
“Metro Phoenix offers everything we’ve needed to build safe and reliable self-driving technology: a large area with broad, yet complex, city streets to practice on; a wide-spread suburban population that relies heavily on vehicle transport; and of course, lots of gorgeous sunny days to drive in while we also invest in further weather testing,” the company announcement released Tuesday morning said.
“Most importantly, metro Phoenix is an innovation-minded region that shares our vision of improving mobility for all.”
Self-driving cars were first welcomed to Arizona in 2015 through an executive order from Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. That order was updated last year to permit tests with no driver behind the wheel, which Waymo has done at times.
Waymo made its announcement one year and one day after a fatal accident with a self-driving vehicle operated by Uber in Tempe that, at least in the short term, cast a shadow over the industry. Uber no longer operates self-driving vehicles in Arizona, but has said it resumed tests in Pittsburgh.
Waymo vehicles have been involved in Arizona accidents caused by other drivers, but nothing like that fatal crash. After that happened, Waymo’s CEO said his company’s vehicles would have avoided the collision.
Giles, the Mesa mayor, said he’s “comfortable” with the safety of the vehicles after having been on a ride in a self-driving car last year when Waymo showed off its technology at SXSW in Austin.
“It was interesting to see how the sensors identified objects and people, and I felt like I was really flying in a technologically advanced aircraft,” he said. “At some point, you realize it’s just a ride.”
Giles said it could be weeks or months before the new Waymo site is fully operational.
Trump not a fan of the technology
The expansion announcement also comes a day after news site Axios reported that President Donald Trump called driverless cars “crazy” and pantomimed autonomous cars crashing. Axios quoted unnamed officials.
On Twitter, Trump also has criticized Google, which like Waymo, is owned by Alphabet Inc.