A Waymo car awaits a passenger in Austin. Credit: Michael Karlis
Autonomous ride-hailing service Waymo will begin ferrying San Antonians around downtown next year in its self-driving cars, company officials said Tuesday.
San Antonio is one of five cities for Waymo’s next expansion, along with Miami, Dallas, Houston and Orlando. The California-based company currently operates its self-driving cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin.
“We haven’t just built the technology; we’ve developed the definitive playbook for operating autonomous fleets, across dozens of sites, and industry-leading end-to-end rider support,” Waymo said in a statement.
San Antonio residents will be able to hail a Waymo via the Uber app. Once the car arrives, the rider unlocks the vehicle via the app, gets in, buckles up and lets the automated driving software handle the rest.
Waymo began mapping San Antonio’s streets in May.
The service, which uses customized Jaguar SUVs, harnesses LiDAR systems to create a 3D map of its surroundings by emitting laser pulses, which bounce off objects and return to the vehicle.
Even so, Waymo hasn’t been without controversy in cities where the service has already rolled out.
Earlier this month, the company grabbed headlines when one of its cars ran over a beloved bodega cat in a San Francisco neighborhood. In another incident, a woman in Austin claimed she was trapped inside one of the driverless vehicles as it headed the wrong way down a busy thoroughfare.
Even so, Trish DeBerry — CEO of Centro San Antonio, an organization that promotes the Alamo City’s downtown area — said in a statement that Waymo is part of the transportation future.
“We have led the charge for micro-mobility in the urban core and knew autonomous was on the horizon, so we look forward to helping to educate the public on the benefits, as well as ensuring residents are comfortable with accessing this new way to navigate downtown,” DeBerry said.
Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
Related Stories
Both the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Union and Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of Bexar County endorsed Peter Sakai on Monday.
‘The First Amendment guarantees families and faith communities — not the government — the right to instill religious beliefs in our children,’ the ACLU said.
The Mexico-based burger chain made its SA debut two years ago and is now moving into larger digs on Potranco Road.