Way forward to the future: US company offers driverless rides to public
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San Francisco: The Google spin off company Waymo has announced the beginning of driverless rides pilot program in the upcoming weeks.
The company has acquired permission from California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which allows autonomous vehicle (AV) companies to take passengers for tests, according to the report by Verge.
The self-riding units which are functioning for the purpose of tests are prohibited from charging for rides.
Meanwhile, Waymo already received approval from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to charge for autonomous rides earlier this week.
It simply needs to obtain driverless deployment authorization from the CPUC to officially begin its driver-less service.
In March this year, the company was reportedly planning to start offering rides in its fully autonomous vehicles, without human safety drivers behind the wheel.
The company had said that its driver-less vehicles were only available to employees but would soon grow to include members of the company's "Trusted Tester" programme.
According to the CPUC, Waymo rides can be carried out at any time during the day or night. The permissible speed is up to 65 mph. As AV's struggle to perform in poor weather conditions, Waymo is incorporating climate data from different sources to perform irrespective of the conditions.
-IANS with Inputs