Robotaxi rides have officially launched in San Francisco but only for a limited number of riders.
Waymo, the driverless vehicle company, kicked off its Waymo One Trusted Tester program on Tuesday, allowing select residents to take an autonomous ride in a Waymo all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicle.
The program is similar to the 2017 Early Rider Program in Phoenix, where select passengers got autonomous rides before Waymo launched its public robotaxi service in 2020.
San Franciscans can catch a ride in one of these robotaxis by downloading the Waymo One app and asking to join the experiment. Select individuals from a wide array of backgrounds with varied transportation needs will be selected. Those selected to participate must sign a nondisclosure agreement and be willing to provide the company with extensive feedback about their experience. All rides in this tester phase are free for passengers and are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Initial rides will be accompanied by “autonomous specialists,” which are contract workers provided by Transdev to ride in the front seat and monitor the ride’s safety.
Michelle Robertson, a journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle, caught a 15-minute ride in one of Waymo’s robotaxis. While she says she “wasn’t quite sure what to expect of the ride,” she didn’t feel unsafe in the vehicle, partly because an autonomous specialist accompanied her.
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