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Waymo launches 6th generation robotaxi on Geely’s electric Zeekr vehicle | Source: Waymo
Waymo has launched its sixth-generation robotaxi. Alphabet’s autonomous driving division says its approach of designing hardware and software from the ground up has been critical to its success, and that continues with its latest generation of robotaxis.
Waymo’s vehicles are already providing more than 100,000 paid trips per week at deployment sites using the fifth-generation robotaxi that launched in March 2020. The company says the system has been instrumental in expanding its service to the most densely populated cities in the U.S. But the latest robotaxi update aims to reduce the cost of the system while providing more resolution, range, and computing power to enable more capabilities. Waymo did not specify how much the vehicles cost to build.
The sixth-generation robotaxi is equipped with 13 cameras, four lidars, six radars, and an external audio receiver (EAR) array. The company has optimized this new sensor suite to deliver greater performance while significantly reducing costs. It provides the Waymo Driver with an overlapping view around the vehicle, up to 500 meters away, day and night, and in a variety of weather conditions.
All this new hardware is being installed on Geely’s electric Zeekr vehicle. Waymo worked with Geely in 2021 to integrate the Waymo Driver into the Zeekr version. China-based Geely says this version was designed specifically in Sweden for autonomous ride-sharing. Waymo previously used the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicle as the basis for its robotaxis.
The Biden administration has proposed raising tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 25% to 100% in May 2024. Waymo said it was “monitoring the China tariff situation but has no updates to share.” Robot Report.
Waymo expands robotaxi capabilities
In autonomous driving systems, redundancy is essential to provide reliable reliability and safe backup for unexpected weather conditions. That’s why the Waymo Driver can see the world from three sensing modalities.
Thanks to enhanced camera-radar peripheral vision and more sophisticated lidar, Waymo’s sixth-generation robotaxi can navigate a wider range of road conditions and events. The sixth-generation sensor suite is extensive, but Waymo says it uses fewer sensors than previous generations. The company’s advancements in sensor technology and strategic sensor placement have allowed it to reduce the number of sensors while maintaining safety-critical redundancy.
The company can swap out different sensing components to suit the specific conditions of each operating environment, such as adjusting sensor wash for vehicles in cold climates. Speaking of cold climates, the cities where Waymo deploys its robotaxis are typically warm year-round. That’s something the company says its latest-generation vehicles can change.
Waymo’s current system enables it to provide safe and reliable service to riders in cities where it operates even in extreme heat, fog, rain, and hail. Waymo says it has deepened its understanding of how winter weather affects its technology and operations through regular road trips to new cities, and has directly applied those insights to its sixth-generation system.
For example, because robotaxis are exposed to the natural environment for long periods of time without manual intervention, Waymo has implemented precautions for each sensor to ensure they have a clear view of their surroundings, whether they are driving on buggy Texas roads or in sub-zero temperatures. Complementing these protective strategies, the company provides significant redundancy in sensor capabilities to ensure reliable performance in adverse conditions and increase the range of each modality.
Waymo plans to deploy robotaxis faster in new cities
Waymo says it has now manufactured and integrated its sixth-generation hardware into thousands of vehicles, and has significant experience developing and operating fully autonomous driving technology at scale. To safely and quickly integrate the next-generation Driver into its vehicles, the company tests and validates new hardware from component to system level through a rigorous process of structured testing, real-world driving, and simulation.
The sixth-generation sensor suite already has thousands of miles of real-world driving experience under its wheels, and millions more in simulation. The Waymo Driver learns from the collective experience gathered by the entire fleet, including previous hardware generations. Waymo says this shared knowledge accelerates and improves development with each generation, reducing the miles needed to train and validate the underlying models that drive the vehicle autonomously.
The company says safety is its guiding principle, and simulations show positive signs of system performance, allowing Waymo to have self-driving cars without a human in the driver’s seat in about half the time.
Other recent robotaxi milestones
Waymo isn’t the only robotaxi company operating in the U.S., but it’s a clear leader in the space, having expanded just two weeks ago. It has launched robotaxi operations in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the latest in a series of expansions the company has undertaken this year. explanation San Francisco’s waiting list, launching Commercial operations in Los Angeles and Expanding Phoenix service area. Alphabet doubles investment in Waymo. announce The company plans to invest up to $5 billion in the business over the next few years.
Waymo’s biggest competitor, at least in the past, was GM’s self-driving division Cruise, which had a rough year in 2023, resulting in the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspending Cruise’s permit in the state and Cruise ceasing all operations nationwide.
This year, Cruise appears to be rebuilding some of its operations. It announced it is resuming manual driving in Houston and Dallas and is working on supervised driving in Phoenix and Dallas. It began manual driving in Phoenix in April. Cruise has not yet resumed robotaxi operations in California. In June, General Motors said it would invest an additional $850 million in autonomous vehicle developers.
Zoox is another notable autonomous vehicle company operating in the United States. The Amazon subsidiary began testing its own robotaxis in Austin and Miami in June 2024, the company’s fourth and fifth public testing locations. Zoox began operations in San Francisco in 2018, then expanded to Las Vegas in 2019 and Seattle in 2021.
