Waymo self-driving taxi service will be the industry first starting by the end of 2018. Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo has finalized the technology and is collecting feedback from beta tests to ascertain their driverless taxi’s efficiency and safety.
Waymo received 20,000 applications from people who were willing to test the service. Out of the 20,000, Waymo selected 400 lucky people keeping account of their ages and activity level. Their ages range from 9 to 69 years.
The riders have been taking the self-driving car to accomplish errands like going to school or their offices. “The primary focus of our early rider program is really to have them give us feedback about what they want out of a service like Waymo,” Liz Markman, Waymo communications manager said in an interview.
The early rider program started in April 2017 in Phoenix, America. The program has awakened the Waymo think tank to work around the shortcomings of the technology. The early riders reported that they feel the need of a human being to whom they can talk to and get answers to their questions. Waymo is currently working on a system that can be initiated with the push of a button or awakened through a mobile app. There is even work going on to find a way to wake up passengers who doze off during the ride.
Waymo self-driving taxis are in direct competition with Uber. Which company makes it to the top is yet to be seen.