{"id":1830,"date":"2019-09-19T09:01:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T09:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2019-09-19T09:01:08","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T09:01:08","slug":"waymos-autonomous-taxi-service-picks-up-1000th-customer-after-6-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/2019\/09\/19\/waymos-autonomous-taxi-service-picks-up-1000th-customer-after-6-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Waymo\u2019s Autonomous Taxi Service Picks Up 1,000th Customer After 6 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> By Ira Boudway, <em>&nbsp;Bloomberg<\/em>, May 10, 2019 <br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/national\/2019\/05\/10\/526076.htm\">https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/national\/2019\/05\/10\/526076.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\u201cThe first major self-driving taxi service needed six months to reach 1,000 customers, another sign that growth may be slow as companies try to build businesses around autonomous vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Waymo, the self-driving project owned by Alphabet Inc., announced on Tuesday that it has enrolled 1,000 customers for its ride-hailing service in suburban Phoenix. Chief Executive Officer John Krafcik touted the milestone while revealing plans to allow select Lyft Inc. users in Arizona to hail Waymo taxis. The Google off-shoot is currently the only self-driving company carrying paying customers on public roads, although often monitored by human safety drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By now, the sight of Waymo\u2019s retrofitted Chrysler Pacifica minivans has become commonplace in the area. In a demo late last month, with two Waymo press officials and a safety driver on hand, a robotaxi summoned by the app pulled over in a cul-de-sac near the Chandler library. A Waymo employee selected for the destination a Macy\u2019s store at a mall, about four miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The safety driver sat wordlessly, hands in his lap, as the passengers boarded. \u201cDo not touch the steering wheel or pedals,\u201d read a message on the wheel in front of him. If he did, the text warned, the van would pull over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The robot drove smoothly during an eight-mile round trip, stopping at red lights, changing speeds evenly and completing unprotected left turns and merges. The software nudged its way forward before making a right turn into traffic. Anyone who couldn\u2019t see the untouched steering wheel might not have guessed that it was a self-driving car.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article features Waymo, a project owned by Alphabet Inc. It is a paid autonomous taxi service in Phoenix, currently still monitored by human safety drivers. It successfully services 100 square miles and highlights the possibilities that are soon to become commonplace in the market. Users have already begun to become desensitized to the fact that it is an autonomous service. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-science-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions\/1837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}