| Hearken to this text |
Waymo has unveiled its sixth-generation autonomous taxi technology, partnering with Geely to integrate the system onto their all-electric Zeekr vehicles. | Supply: Waymo
Waymo introduces its latest milestone: the sixth generation of autonomous robotaxis, a testament to innovation and safety in self-driving technology. Waymo, the autonomous driving subsidiary of Alphabet, attributes its achievements primarily to its approach of developing both hardware and software components from scratch, a strategy it is also employing in its latest generation of robotaxis.
Since Waymo’s debut of its fifth-generation robotaxi in March 2020, it has successfully completed over 100,000 paid rides per week across its operational areas. According to the corporation, this methodology has proven crucial in enabling it to expand its services to some of the most densely populated urban areas in the United States. While its latest robotaxi replacement aims to reduce system costs while delivering more power, variety, and computational capacity to enable new capabilities. Waymo has declined to disclose the exact cost of manufacturing its self-driving cars.
The sixth-generation robotaxi features a comprehensive suite of sensors, including 13 cameras, four lidars, six radars, and an array of exterior audio receivers. The corporation has optimised its newly developed sensor suite to achieve greater efficiency at a substantially lower cost. The system furnishes the Waymo Driver with overlapping fields of vision across the vehicle, extending up to 500 meters in every direction, regardless of time of day or climatic conditions.
The Biden administration proposed a steep increase in tariffs on electric vehicles from China in May 2024, from the current rate of 25% to a whopping 100%. “While we continue to closely monitor the evolving situation regarding China tariffs, we currently do not have any new information to share,” Waymo said.
Waymo expands robotaxi capabilities
Redundancies are crucial in autonomous driving systems to provide fail-safe backup capabilities, ensuring reliability and performance even in extreme weather conditions? The Waymo Driver’s omniscient perspective stems from its trifecta of sensory inputs.
Waymo’s sixth-generation robotaxi boasts an advanced camera-radar surround view, coupled with precise and subtle lidar capabilities, allowing it to seamlessly navigate a vast array of scenarios across diverse road conditions. While the sixth generation’s sensor suite is indeed comprehensive, Waymo noted a reduction in the number of sensors compared to its previous eras. The corporation leveraged its advancements in sensor technology and strategically positioned sensors to reduce the number of sensors required, thereby maintaining critical redundancy for safety purposes.
The corporation can tailor its sensing elements to suit the specific conditions of each operating environment, much like calibrating sensor cleaning for vehicles in colder climates to ensure optimal performance. In fact, most cities where Waymo has introduced its self-driving vehicles experience relatively mild temperatures throughout the year, making it challenging to associate them with consistently cold weather conditions. According to the corporation, one thing that its latest era car might change.
Waymo’s existing system enables reliable and secure transportation for riders across its operational cities, regardless of challenging weather conditions such as extreme heat, fog, rain, and hail. Through extensive testing on city streets, Waymo has refined its comprehension of how winter weather conditions impact its autonomous driving capabilities and operational efficiency, leveraging this knowledge in the development of its sixth-generation system.
To withstand prolonged exposure to various environmental conditions without human oversight, Waymo implemented proactive measures to ensure each sensor on its robotaxis maintained an unobstructed view of its surroundings, regardless of whether navigating through foggy Texas roads or operating in subzero temperatures. To reinforce its defensive measures, the corporation incorporates substantial buffers into its sensor technologies to ensure reliable performance under challenging conditions, thereby expanding each modality’s reach.
Waymo aims to roll out its autonomous taxi service in new cities at an accelerated pace.
With six generations of hardware manufactured and embedded in hundreds of vehicles, Waymo asserts its proficiency in developing and operationalizing fully autonomous technology at large-scale levels. To seamlessly integrate its cutting-edge driver technology into its fleet, the company thoroughly tests and validates its new hardware at every level – from component to system – through a meticulous regimen of standardized testing, real-world driving simulations, and practical evaluations.
With six generations of sensor suites under its belt, the technology boasts extensive real-world driving experience – hundreds of miles – plus an additional hundreds of thousands of kilometers gained through rigorous simulation testing. The Waymo Driver’s intelligence grows through the aggregation of knowledge from its entire fleet, combined with learnings from previous hardware iterations. Waymo claims that by sharing this data, it minimizes the need for human coaches, thereby streamlining the process of validating the underlying algorithms that enable its autonomous vehicles to accelerate and improve with each new generation.
The company prioritizes security as its core principle, with its systems’ efficiency in simulation showcasing encouraging signs that Waymo is poised to begin operations without human intervention within approximately half the projected timeframe.
Different current robotaxi milestones
While Waymo is not the only robotaxi company operating in the US, it stands out as a pioneer and leader in this space. Two weeks prior, it was a typical summer morning – warm sunshine casting a golden glow over the lush greenery.
Waymo’s greatest competitors, until recently, have primarily come from General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary, Cruise. In 2023, Cruise faced significant challenges that culminated in the revocation of its permits by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and a nationwide operational pause.
This year, cruise giant Cruise appears to be rebuilding some of its core operations. Guided driving in progress in Dallas; supervised driving now underway in both Phoenix and Dallas. Operations are guided in Phoenix during April. Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, must restart robotaxi operations in its home state of California. In June, General Motors announced that it would invest an additional $850 million in the autonomous car development company.
Zoox is another prominent autonomous vehicle company operating in the United States. Amazon’s subsidiary began piloting its custom-designed autonomous taxis in Austin and Miami in June 2024, representing the company’s fourth and fifth public test sites. Zoox began operations in San Francisco in 2018, subsequently expanding its presence to Las Vegas in 2019 and Seattle in 2021.
