Business correspondent
Mike Jones did not expected that his journey from Los Angeles to Scottzel, Arizona in December.
To reach the airport, reserve a driver taxi and enjoy suspense when he jumped with the curious passers -by.
But he got more attention than he was negotiating.
Mr. Jones found himself driving around and around him in a car park while these passers -by he himself.
Waymo did not do what there should be any clear method that Mr. Jones could repair – and he had a journey to arrest her.
Mr. Johns recorded the experience, a video clip that went almost immediately and was captured on TV stations all over the world, where they are casting new public doubt about self -driving cars and how willingness to passengers in the real world.
“Why is this happening to me on Monday morning?” Mr. Jones photographed himself asking.
In the end, a sound is activated inside the car asking him to access the Waymo app to re -control the car.
The ALPHABET company, the parent company of Google, told BBC that it had issued an update of the programs almost immediately.
The company says its driver’s without a driver “is better than people in avoiding accidents that lead to injuries and spreading the airbag and police reports.”
However, Mr. John’s experience is not the first time that the company has to take action.
Last year, the company summoned more than 600 cars after it hit one street.
In May 2024, the National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) I launched the investigation In 22 incidents involved on Waymo compounds.
The road has also gone to a driver’s future as well as competing services.
In December, the American public car giant Self -driving closed A sub -flight of the car.
The general manager attributed the strategy to change the “time and great resources that will be necessary to expand the scope of business.”
In October 2023, one of its cars was hit and pulled for more than 20 feet (6 meters), leaving it seriously.
Meanwhile, in February of last year, it appeared that Apple’s rumor leadership The auto project was foldable.
Uber abandoned him The car’s driver’s efforts in 2020.
But some of the big players remain in the race, including Zoox, owned by Amazon, as well as Chipmaker Nvidia and Elon Musk’s Tesla.
Waymo is the US lead player. It already runs self -driving taxis in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, and promised to start soon in Atlanta and Miami, Florida.
Why did Waymo succeed, as other efforts, at least in the United States, failed?
“Three things – people, money and operation,” said Sven Baker, a lecturer at the College of Graduate Studies in Business Administration at Stanford University, and the administrative director of silicon Valley, a vehicle, a car consultant.
It indicates that over the years Waymo has used some leading numbers in self -government vehicle engineering, it has the financial weight of the Google Malik’s alphabet behind it, and it has become comprehensive in its approach.
“They came to play truly by the book, to be a good host of operations … Working with the organizers to ensure that what they publish is safe.”
So what next?
Philip Kambashov, the global co -commander for car practice and assembly in the giant consulting consulting company, says the good weather areas will likely see the services without a driver, says in Philip Campchov, the global co -leader for the practice of cars and assembly in the consulting giant.
This would include the states of the southern United States such as Texas and Florida, where Waymo already has plans.
“Robo Al -Dhor is still working better in good weather conditions,” says Campchov.
It also indicates that batteries work better in warmer conditions, which is especially important for driver -free cars that need a lot of energy to operate on board.
He says: “Collect all this together, in the second part of 2020s, you will see one city after opening it and then it is limited to these cities,” he says.
It will be a slow process.
“It is in fact a heavy operation to launch this technology, which includes a good amount of human leadership,” says Mr. Baker.
“You need to drive these vehicles across the streets you want to spread, and you need to drive them over and over, and, to some extent, you need to edit data manually.”
The entire process can also be suspended due to safety concerns.
“This will not happen unless we do not face major incidents,” Campchov says.
For those who work on self -driving trucks, it can be said that safety is more anxious.
“Safety is the first concern that we are working on,” says David Liu, CEO of Plus, who manufactures driver without truck drivers and works with international companies such as Amazon, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Scania.
“Self -government trucks and autonomous compounds need to be safer than a medium human vehicle,” says Liu.
“The human drivers are great, but they are not devoid of defects. Most of the incidents we face for ourselves because a driver does not occur. We do not have this issue with technology,” explains.
“Robo Taxi mostly extends inside cities in low -speed environments, while trucks are usually operated on highways at a higher speed.
“So we need to put a different set of technology to be able to see more clearly around trucks and be able to deal with a longer brake distance, for example.”
Let’s see in the future without a driver, it may be worth seeing developments in China.
In Wuhan, more than 500 drivers are operated by BAIDU.
Throughout the country, driver car operation was reported without driver in 16 cities and is tested by 19 factories.
“There is definitely more competition … there are four or five companies that are very similar to Waymo.”
Returning to Scottsdale, Mr. Johns reflects his experience and the release of independent vehicles.
“There is one big thing that we are all part of a paid experience. At the end of the day, what they do is to fix it when they go, for every city. This is a problem.”