Waymo is a self-driving car company owned by Google’s parent company called Alphabet. This is changing the game of transportation with fully electric vehicles that can drive without a human behind the wheel. These cars are already operating in cities like Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. These cars are able to drive on their own, detect hazards, and transport passengers safely.
Waymo cars work with special cameras, sensors, and computers that help them see traffic lights, pedestrians, and other vehicles on the road. This company has been working on this idea since 2009, and has been tested over 100 million times to ensure that they are safe and road-ready.
According to the Waymo Website, “At Waymo, our goal is to reduce traffic injuries and deaths by driving safely and responsibly, and we will carefully manage risks as we scale our operations.”
To do this, the cars are a mix of lidar, cameras, radar, and prosecution to view what’s going on around them. Experts say that Waymo has one of the most advanced systems for self-driving.
Furthermore, the Waymo Help website says, “The way no driver sees and understands the world through a number of sensors, including cameras on the outside of the car, lidar paints a 3D picture of its surroundings, allowing us to measure the size of the objects 360 degrees around the vehicle and up to 300 meters away.”
Waymo also has big plans for the future. The company hopes its cars will one day be available in more cities across the U.S. If that happens, more people could get rides without needing to worry about parking, learning how to drive, or even being worried about traffic.
“Soon, Miami, Washington D.C., and Dallas. Operating in 5+ major U.S. cities, and testing across the country and Tokyo has strengthened our system, creating a robust and adaptable Waymo driver that can expand to new cities,” according to the Waymo Blog.
Waymo has become a big topic in pop culture, especially on social media. Videos of the self-driving cars often go viral on TikTok and Instagram, showing them doing weird or unexpected things. People post their reactions, jokes, and memes about cars.
“Yeah, I’ve seen a few videos of Waymo cars on TikTok. Honestly, my first reaction was kind of shocking- like, “Wait, there’s no driver in there?” Some of the videos are funny, but others are a little scary, especially when the cars mess up or get confused. It’s super cool that they can drive on their own, but I don’t think I’d totally trust one yet,” says senior Ondia Ahangar.
