Last month, self-driving company Waymo began operating autonomous minivans on public roads in Arizona, in tests that were conducted without a safety driver "or any human at all" behind the steering wheel. Today, the Google-owned company announced it's now beginning the first steps toward launching a ride-hailing service backed by a fleet of completely self-driving vehicles (via The Verge).
To start, Waymo will begin testing the autonomous driving service with its employees in Chandler, Arizona, then expand to members of Waymo's Early Rider program before finally seeing a public launch in the town sometime in the next few months. Users will hail the vans through the Waymo app and when they arrive there won't be any safety drivers or other humans in the driver's seat, but a Waymo employee will still sit in the backseat.
The test vans will be able to travel anywhere within a geofenced 100-square-mile radius of Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. While there are understandable caveats to Waymo's ride hailing service tests, it is notable as the company's first time achieving Level 4 autonomy, where a vehicle is expected to perform "safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip" without someone behind the wheel.
The next step for Waymo is a big one: a commercial ride-hail service, in which riders can hail one of the company’s autonomous minivans via an app like Uber or Lyft. “People will get to use our fleet of on-demand vehicles, to do anything from commute to work, get home from a night out, or run errands,” Krafcik said.
Waymo has been testing its self-driving vans in Arizona because the state's laws regulating autonomous tests "are practically non-existent." Arizona lacks regulation that requires companies to publicly disclose accidents involving its autonomous vehicles, and various other potential self-driving related incidents, like the number of times a human driver was forced to take the wheel.
According to Chandler's mayor Jay Tibshraeny, "Waymo's work here in Chandler is groundbreaking as they work toward their goal of fully autonomous vehicles. At the same time, this research and development taking place in our community will ultimately make our roads safer and provide new freedom for those unable to drive."
Waymo has multiple competitors in the self-driving market, previously engaging in a legal dispute with Uber earlier in 2017. In February, Waymo accused Uber of stealing Waymo's own self-driving LIDAR system, and then a few months later, Uber fired the engineer accused of stealing the self-driving secrets from Waymo.
For Apple, the Cupertino company has reportedly scaled back its vehicle-related ambitions, with the most recent reports detailing the development of an autonomous service that would shuttle employees around its campus.
Great. Go to a place with no regulations to test a technology that will eliminate many thousands of entry level driving jobs for people. These big tech companies exist only to enrich a tiny number of people and destroy the rest of us, all under the rubric of “progress.”
I’m sure horse driven buggy drivers felt the same way about “horseless carriages “
Great. Go to a place with no regulations to test a technology that will eliminate many thousands of entry level driving jobs for people. These big tech companies exist only to enrich a tiny number of people and destroy the rest of us, all under the rubric of “progress.”
Great. Go to a place with no regulations to test a technology that will eliminate many thousands of entry level driving jobs for people. These big tech companies exist only to enrich a tiny number of people and destroy the rest of us, all under the rubric of “progress.”
Self-driving cars will eventually save thousands of lives every day. I'd say it's a good trade-off.
Great. Go to a place with no regulations to test a technology that will eliminate many thousands of entry level driving jobs for people. These big tech companies exist only to enrich a tiny number of people and destroy the rest of us, all under the rubric of “progress.”
What about the number of lives it can save? Or the number of accidents? Numbers of drink drivers? Personally, I don't see that selling point only enriching a 'tiny' number of people lol
Friday October 30, 2026 3:20 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
In a memo shared with Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers this week, and later obtained by MacRumors, Apple provided technicians with guidance on how to diagnose and address the iPhone Duo's inner display cracking issue.
If a customer reports the issue, Apple advised technicians to inspect the iPhone Duo and repair or replace it in accordance with their standard procedures....
Thursday October 29, 2026 1:47 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the new iPad mini has an OLED display, the device does not support ProMotion, meaning the display's refresh rate is limited to 60Hz instead of 120Hz.
ProMotion support would have allowed for the iPad mini's refresh rate to automatically adjust from 10Hz to 120Hz depending on the content being displayed, but evidently Apple has kept the feature exclusive to the iPad Pro among iPad...
Thursday October 29, 2026 11:52 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
In the U.S. and most other countries, Apple's website shows the new iPad mini being held by pinched fingers, but this is not the case in South Korea.
The new iPad mini shown with pinched fingers on Apple's website in the U.S.
On its South Korean website, Apple simply shows an image of the iPad mini on its own.
The new iPad mini shown without pinched fingers on Apple's website in South Korea ...
Top Rated Comments
Automated cars don't have to be perfect, they just have to initially kill fewer people than driven cars do.
And I'm pretty sure that even at this point, if we were able to replace ALL cars with autonomous cars that would be easily achieved.
I don't know how to drive and never wanted to learn. This is the perfect solution for me!
The future looks bright!