Waymo Makes Its Way To Midtown.
Working with researchers at Georgia Tech, autonomous vehicle company Waymo has come to Atlanta.
Don’t expect to look over in traffic and see an empty vehicle just yet. “Human autonomous specialists will remain in the vehicles at all times when we are driving in Atlanta,” Sandy Karp, Waymo spokesperson, told FOX 5. According to Karp, the company is mapping the city and “will begin driving autonomously, with a human behind the wheel, in the coming weeks.”
Waymo currently has yet to launch a rider program in Atlanta. Still, the company says it brings “the Waymo Driver to cities where we don’t typically operate to evaluate its performance, identify unique regional nuances, and learn how to navigate them.”
While Waymo is new to the city, research on autonomous vehicles is not. Students and staff at Georgia Tech have been studying the interaction between humans and autonomous vehicles for years in the Autonomous and Connected Transportation Laboratory.
“We need to understand what are some of the challenges that are there and how do we overcome those challenges, so this transition to the fully autonomous context is as smooth as possible,” Srinivas Peeta, Ph.D., Frederick R. Dickerson Chair and Professor of Georgia Tech, told FOX 5.
Waymo has a connection to Atlanta, as GT Alum Raghav Kohli is their Senior Director of Automotive Partnerships.
To see what an autonomous Waymo cab ride looks like, check out Supercar Blondie’s review:
