Progress is made in small steps over many years. Most project take longer to become reality than initially expected. Both these cliches hold true for autonomous vehicles as well.
The buzz about autonomous driving is peaking for a while already and we reach new (small) milestones on a regular basis. ‘Is this still news?’ you might ask. In my opinion it is. We have been teased with the promise of full autonomous driving for a long time already and so far there always was a driver present for safety reasons. Accidents have happened although rates appear to be lower than human drivers. But this week Google’s sister company Waymo released its driverless taxi service, Waymo One, to the public. A select group of beta users can order a driverless taxi in the Phoenix (U.S.) area 24/7.
A small reminder that the future is approaching fast. Even though progress is made in small steps over many years.
Here is the release video:
And a review by The Verge: