[AutonomousVehicles] everything you need to know abou Atalnta's Robo Taxis

Tue Aug 5 16:39:09 UTC 2025

Article URL:
https://www.ajc.com/news/2025/07/self-driving-taxis-come-to-atlanta/

Article Text:

A photograph of a self-driving Waymo vehicle is seen in motion during a
self-test drive on Monday, June 23, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)
The first self-driving cars have arrived in Atlanta. You may have seen them
downtown — nearly silent white Jaguar electric cars covered in sensors,
gliding around with no one behind the wheel.

They’re operated by Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company,
Alphabet. They cover a 65-square-mile area that includes much of downtown,
Midtown and Buckhead, with plans to expand.

Their arrival has some road users nervous and others excited. Let’s explore
the state of self-driving technology in Atlanta and beyond.

Waymo has an early lead in self-driving taxis in the U.S. The company has
the most vehicles on the road (more than 1,500) and the most service areas
(five — Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin), with
Washington, D.C., on the way.

ExploreHere's what it's like to ride in a Waymo driverless car

A self-driving Waymo vehicle is seen entering Ponce City Market in Atlanta
on Monday, June 23, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/ AJC)

A self-driving Waymo vehicle is seen entering Ponce City Market in Atlanta
on Monday, June 23, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/ AJC)
Two other companies have driverless robotaxis accepting commercial rides.
May Mobility has cars operating in Peachtree Corners, and has partnered
with Lyft to bring autonomous vehicles to Atlanta with an initial
deployment using human “safety operators.” They’re also operating in parts
of Minnesota and California. Tesla prominently launched its Robotaxi
service in Austin in June.

Several others could be on the way soon. Amazon-backed Zoox is testing its
minibus-like driverless pods in several cities, as well as starting its
testing fleet in Atlanta. Avride is working with Hyundai and plans to roll
out a taxi service in Dallas later this year.

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One prominent name has left the business. General Motors shut down its
Cruise robotaxi unit late last year. CEO Mary Barra said the driverless
taxi market was simply “not our core business” and “very expensive.”

You’ll need the Uber ride-hailing app to use a Waymo driverless taxi in
Atlanta. In some other cities, Waymo has its own app, Waymo One.

Uber may send you a driver or a driverless car, though the company says it
alerts riders if a driverless car is on the way in case they choose to opt
out of that service.

Waymo’s cars map the world around them using a combination of cameras,
radar and Lidar (which is similar to radar but uses pulsed lasers instead
of radio waves). Most rival companies employ the same technology.

Tesla uses cameras alone, which concerns some safety experts. Just days
after the company’s self-driving fleet launched, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration initiated a safety investigation into the
camera-only system over reports of erratic driving.

Waymo calls the software that powers its self-driving system the “Waymo
Driver,” which can confusingly sound like there’s a human involved.

Waymo does not have a human actively monitoring every car at all times, but
riders can alert a human to a problem and get help either through the app
or a help button in the car.

That human cannot remotely control the car. Waymo says its “fleet response”
teams give the software “additional information to contextualize its
environment.” They can help the Waymo Driver software make decisions.
However, “The Waymo Driver does not rely solely on the inputs it receives
from the fleet response agent, and it is in control of the vehicle at all
times.”

We heard from riders who were satisfied with their Waymo experience and
others with concerns.

Vincent Lombardozzi, 39, of Jersey City, New Jersey, took a Waymo in Los
Angeles last year. “At any point, I did not even feel slightly unsafe,” he
said. “It handled all the traffic well. It was a fantastic experience.”

The technology behind self-driving taxis could someday power cars you can
park in your driveway. However, that day isn’t likely soon.

Robotaxi services operate in limited areas that companies have carefully
mapped. A system that can operate on any public road may be further away.

The SAE (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers) has a six-level
scale to describe a car’s driving automation.

Level 0 involves warnings without interaction.
Level 1 uses adaptive cruise control or lane centering.
Level 2 combines those two functions.
Level 3 is described as “traffic jam chauffeur.” It can take charge of
driving in a limited, specific situation, but it requires a human driver to
be available to take over when situations evolve.
Level 4 is a system capable of self-driving under limited conditions and
may even be employed without a steering wheel or foot controls. This is
where the current crop of robotaxis fits in.
Level 5 is unrestricted self-driving under any conditions.
Every system for sale in the U.S. today is a Level 2 system. That includes
Ford’s BlueCruise, General Motors’ Super Cruise and Tesla’s Full
Self-Driving (Supervised). Only Mercedes-Benz sells a Level 3 system that
lets the driver look away under limited circumstances, and that system is
offered only in Nevada and parts of California.

Mercedes-Benz’s early experiences illustrate how complex it could be to
bring self-driving to the masses beyond confined areas.

The company recently noted that we ask police to ticket distracted drivers,
but some states now allow Level 3 autonomy, which tells drivers it’s safe
to look away and let the car drive. Mercedes proposed turquoise exterior
lights to alert police when a self-driving system is engaged.

Liability laws, insurance practices and more must evolve as the technology
spreads.

Sean Tucker reports for Kelley Blue Book from Washington, D.C., where he
has covered the auto and energy industries for a quarter-century.

The Steering Column is a weekly consumer auto column from Cox Automotive.
Cox Automotive and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution are owned by parent
company, Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.

-- 
Cornelius Butler
President
Butler New Media, LLC
"Creating A More Accessible World"
http://www.butlernewmedia.com
email: corn at butlernewmedia.com
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