Robotaxi and autonomous driving technology company Waymo has not always served its riders very well.
In fact, there’s a full CNN report written about Waymo cars, saying they are sometimes like driven by teenagers, or those only starting out in the world of driving. The correspondent added these Waymo robotaxis have run red lights and almost hit pedestrians. Yikes!
Waymo cars are also causing dangerous collisions. Furthermore, there are hundreds of incidents in which these Waymo robotaxis made dangerous maneuvers and struggled with obstacles that human drivers handle so well.
Aside from running red lights, they drive into oncoming traffic and active crime scenes, failing to comply with emergency road closures and coming within inches of pedestrians lawfully crossing the street, when there are supposed to be zero missteps since they are, well, robotaxis.
As a result, Waymo, during the previous two months, recalled thousands of its cars and paused operations in several cities after their vehicles drove into flooded streets, such as in San Antonio, Texas where an unoccupied Waymo was swept away in gushing floodwaters.
And, recently, the company announced it has suspended all freeway operations in big cities like Los Angeles and Miami, after a high-speed pursuit and encounter with the police.
Now, it seems that Phoenix, Arizona is joining the bandwagon. Uber has ended its self-driving partnership with Waymo in the Copper State, and it’s not due to issues with robotaxis taking the jobs of human drivers, since Uber is set to find their brand-new partner there.
Under the partnership made in 2023, Uber had integrated the autonomous cars of Waymo into its ridesharing and food delivery apps.
According to the official spokesperson of Waymo, the cars used for the pilot program have already been integrated back into its very own Phoenix fleet, where they remain available and accessible via the app.
A Waymo spokesperson said that vehicles used for the pilot program have already been integrated back into its own Phoenix fleet, where they remain available through its app.
“Phoenix was our first pilot market with Waymo and was an intentionally limited deployment, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program,” an Uber representative stated meanwhile.
Uber is preparing to launch a separate autonomous vehicle partnership in Phoenix, but has yet to name its newest partner.
This interesting end of the partnership is following Waymo’s recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis, too, across the United States, not only in a particular state, because of a software issue that could cause its cars to enter a closed freeway construction zone and continue driving.
There are still lots of important things to do to improve its software systems. However, take note that Waymo’s cars are still available on Uber apps in Austin and Atlanta. Bye, Waymo!
Managed by Google’s parent company, Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company and the leading commercial operator of fully-driverless robotaxis in America. Care to share your thoughts on this? Open your account on RSF today!