Google’s Self-Driving Car Project Gets a New Name: Waymo

While the self-driving auto project was in Alphabet’s “X” unit for “moonshots”, there was much speculation over what the business plan or “end game” was, said Bryant Walker Smith, a risk, technology and mobility expert at Stanford University.

With regard to what remains to be done before full commercialization, Waymo’s head of tech, Dmitri Dolgov, stated that work was underway to make rides “smoother”, maps better, and navigation more accurate with regard to potential problem weather such as snow and heavy rain. Navigating through Austin’s suburbs with legally blind passenger Steve Mahan, Alphabet says the drive reflected everyday driving situations. Now we’ve driven another million miles on public roads. This was, according to Krafcik, a signal that the team could begin to shift our focus from foundational technical work towards launching our their company – offering more rides, in more places, for more people. “We are in the business of making better drivers”.

Additionally, he revealed that back in October 2015, one of Google’s completely independent automobiles with no steering wheel or pedals drove around on public roads in Austin, Texas. The company has not had much success in its search for a manufacturing partner to make self-driving cars.

In doing so, Krafcik and other supporters of self-driving cars believe the technology will drastically reduce the number of deaths on the roads each year because they contend robots don’t get distracted or drunk, nor ignore the rules of the road, like humans do.

According to a Bloomberg report, the partnership will speed up the development of self-driving cars, which will be ready for launch towards the end of 2017. A driver died while using the semi-autonomous autopilot feature on a Tesla Model S in May, when a truck turned in front of him and sensors failed to detect it. Tesla Motors Inc., BMW, Ford Motor Co., and Volvo Cars have all promised to have fully autonomous cars on the road within five years. Urmson is reportedly starting his own competing autonomous driving venture.

An online Q&A from Waymo indicates the company intends to produce fully autonomous vehicles with no need for human intervention. Indeed, Waymo isn’t the only major company to acknowledge the challenge ambitious manufacturing plans could bring about. Still, Google’s self-driving effort has been instrumental in pushing the initiative within the auto industry and to force vehicle companies to adopt the concept of autonomous driving, Computerworld notes.