Driverless taxi rides are headed your way this year
by Paul A. Eisenstein
Feb 19 2018, 1:40 pm ET
Ready for a completely driverless taxi cab? Riders in the Phoenix area will have the chance to summon a fully autonomous, self-driving vehicle when Google's Waymo launches its ride-sharing service later this year, the company announced.
Waymo launched a pilot program last year, but has until now relied on vehicles that still have “operators” ready to take control in an emergency. And volunteers got to use the service for free. With the approval of Arizona regulators, it will soon start charging riders who will be able to summon a vehicle using a smartphone app, much like competitors such as Uber and Lyft. Those new vans will operate driverlessly.
“As we continue to test-drive our fleet of vehicles in greater Phoenix, we’re taking all the steps necessary to launch our commercial service this year,” a Waymo spokesman said.
In a deal announced last month, Waymo said it plans to add “thousands” of completely driverless Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid vans that will start serving Phoenix and then expand into other U.S. markets.
While specific details have yet to be released, Waymo could sharply undercut its competition on pricing, as drivers make up the biggest line item when it comes to operating costs for ride-sharing and taxi services. That’s why it costs about $1.40 a mile to use a service like Lyft, compared to an average $0.80 a mile to own and operate a personal car, said Gill Pratt, the head of the Toyota Research Institute, which is developing that automaker’s driverless technology.
Many experts believe that by switching to driverless vehicles, ride-sharing services will drop their prices enough to allow millions of U.S. motorists – especially those in urban centers – to sell off their cars. As much as 20 percent of the miles Americans clock on the road each year will be in driverless ride-sharing vehicles, according to a study released last December by the Boston Consulting Group.
Some recent studies have put the number significantly higher and former Ford CEO Mark Fields, a high-profile proponent of the technology, told NBC News that U.S. new car sales could taper off as driverless vehicles become more commonplace.
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