Waymo car will drive along the streets in San Francisco, California on March 1, 2023. Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving vehicle division, announced it had fired more than 135 employees during its second layoff this year.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
On Tuesday, Waymo began offering Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas through the Uber app.
The launch will set up Waymo to showcase its unmanned technology at Austin’s annual South by Southwest Festival, which begins Friday. About 300,000 people live in the Texas capital to attend SXSW on average, according to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“We cannot wait for locals and visitors to Austin to experience Waymo One through the Uber app starting this week,” said Nicole Gavel, head of business development and strategic partnerships at Waymo.
Waymo previously said it will be launched in Austin in 2025 among several other US cities.
Austin is the first marketplace for Uber to manage and dispatch a fleet of Waymo vehicles. Phoenix riders can book Waymo Rides on the Uber app, but ride-sharing companies do not manage the Waymo fleet in that market. The partnership between the two companies will expand to Atlanta later this year, with Waymo employees already beginning a fully autonomous trip within the city, the company said Tuesday.
Uber sold its self-driving vehicle (AV) unit in 2020 after a series of previous safety incidents, including one fatality. The companies have not revealed how they will split Waymo Rides revenues booked through the Uber app.
“With Waymo’s technology and Uber’s proven platform, we look forward to introducing our customers to the increasing future of electrical and autonomous transportation,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.
alphabet– Waymo, which now pulls far ahead of its US self-driving car competitors, currently serves more than 200,000 paid trips a week in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, according to the company.
Waymo’s Austin expansion set up the company later this year due to a potential conflict with Elon Musk-led Tesla.
Tesla has pledged to launch an unmanned ride-sharing service in Austin in June. The company is already producing electric vehicles with partially automated driving systems. These require a human driver with wheels ready to pilot or brake at any time. Tesla designed a Robotaxi called Cybercab, but the company has not yet produced it.
Waymo riders can travel 37 square miles of Austin, covering areas such as downtown, Hyde Park and Montpolis, the company said. Uber users requesting Uber X, Uber Comfort, Uber Green or Uber Comfort Electric will be presented with options that match the Waymo vehicle when available, the company added.
-CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
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