[AutonomousVehicles] Waymo is now mapping New York City

[Cornelius Butler]

Hi Everyone,
Waymo has began mapping New York City. The article link and text is below.

Article Link:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/3/22761058/waymo-autonomous-vehicles-nyc-mapping-manual

Article Text:

Waymo is bringing its autonomous vehicles to New York City for (manually
driven) mapping
5
‘Hey, I’m self-driving here!’

By Andrew J. Hawkins at andyjayhawk  Nov 3, 2021, 9:00am EDT

The latest autonomous vehicle company to tackle the mean streets of New
York City will be Waymo. The Google spinoff is bringing a handful of cars
to the Big Apple, where they will start mapping the city streets using
manually driven vehicles with two people riding inside.

Waymo cited New York’s vibrant street life, “unusual road geometries”
(which is a nice way of saying utterly confusing), and the likelihood of
heavy rain and snow as being among the reasons the company is eager to test
there. Presumedly the company is also curious to see how its vehicles will
react when down-on-their-luck street hustlers slap their hoods and shout
“I’m walking here!”

Waymo won’t have more than five vehicles on the street at a time to start
out, a spokesperson said. They will be driving in Manhattan, primarily
south of Central Park, and eventually extending down through the city to
the financial district and also out to a small section of New Jersey
through the Lincoln Tunnel. The fleet will consist of Chrysler Pacifica
minivans, equipped with high-powered sensors and computing units, at first.
Later they will include the company’s Jaguar I-Pace SUVs as well.

It’s not clear when the cars will begin to drive in autonomous mode. But
New York City is obviously a huge, complex stage on which Waymo is eager to
demonstrate the effectiveness of its technology.

New York City also has some of the most dangerous, congested, and poorly
managed streets in the world. They are also chock-full of construction
workers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and double- and sometimes even
triple-parked cars. In theory, this would make it very difficult for an
autonomous vehicle to navigate, given that AVs typically rely on good
weather, clear signage, and less aggressive driving from other road users
for safe operation.

While other states have become hot beds for AV testing, New York has been a
bit of a ghost town. Part of the reason could be the state’s strict rules,
which include mandating that safety drivers keep their hands on the wheel
at all times and requiring state police escort at all times to be paid for
by the testing company — though the state hasn’t enforced the latter
requirement in recent years.

A spokesperson for Waymo said its operations “do not meet NY’s current
definition for testing and are therefore not subject to permitting
requirements.” The company has proactively reached out to “relevant
lawmakers,” including Governor Kathy Hochul, about its plans.

Waymo says it has been in contact with “many New York policymakers,
regulators, industry leaders, and non-profit groups to get their feedback,
and we’re encouraged by the responses.” The company provided a quote from
Eric Adams, who was just elected mayor, declaring himself “excited” to host
Waymo’s small fleet of vehicles.


Of course, many residents believe that New York City doesn’t need more cars
— it needs fewer. Congestion in the city is arguably worse than ever,
pedestrian deaths are on the rise, and the city’s leaders have done little
to stem the chaos. Waymo says its cars are safer, but they’re still cars
that occupy the same amount of space as human-driven vehicles.

Waymo won’t be the first company to attempt to navigate New York City’s
unique brand of vehicular chaos. In 2017, GM-backed Cruise announced plans
to test its self-driving vehicles in lower Manhattan, but those plans were
later scuttled with little explanation as to why. Boston-based Optimus Ride
has been testing autonomous shuttles in Brooklyn, but only on private roads
as part of the borough’s Navy Yard. Mobileye, a division of Intel, also
recently began testing its vehicles in the city. Meanwhile, operators
flocked to places with friendlier regulations (like Arizona) or ones that
are more convenient to their headquarters (like California).

Waymo is operating a robotaxi service in Phoenix, some of which include
completely driverless vehicles. It’s also testing its vehicles in San
Francisco, where it recently received permits from the California
Department of Motor Vehicles to offer rides to passengers.

But in order to give rides to paying passengers in its fully driverless
vehicles, as it does in Arizona, the Google spinoff would need to apply for
an additional permit from the California Public Utilities Commission. The
company also has a number of vehicles in Los Angeles performing a similar
task as they will in New York.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/autonomousvehicles_nfbnet.org/attachments/20211108/37b22266/attachment.html>