SEATTLE — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.
Waymo, a company using autonomous driving technology to create driverless taxis, has its sights set on the Seattle region for expansion.
According to Waymo, the company has spent several years getting to know the specific area, including understanding the region’s roads during rainy conditions or heavy construction, to allow its vehicles to operate safely.
This announcement comes three years after Waymo tested a handful of self-driving vehicles in Bellevue.
“With hundreds of thousands of weekly fully autonomous trips and over 100 million miles of public road experience, we’re entering a new chapter and accelerating our commercial expansion,” Waymo stated on Aug. 29. “If you see us driving in your city, it’s because we are working hard to serve you in the future.”
Waymo continues to grow throughout U.S.
Waymo is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. The company currently operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta, in addition to ongoing testing in Tokyo. As Waymo plans to expand in the Pacific Northwest, the self-driving car company also plans to expand into Miami, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Dallas.
There is no official timeline for when Waymo will arrive in Seattle, but the company expects to be in service in Denver in 2026.
Waymo expects to use Jaguar I-Pace SUVs and electric vehicles from Chinese automaker Zeekr when the company arrives in Seattle, according to The Seattle Times. But the cars won’t be self-driving at the start.
“They’ll begin with human drivers behind the wheel,” Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp told The Seattle Times. “Then we gradually transition them to autonomous mode with a human still in the car until it meets our safety thresholds.”
A study by Swiss Re, one of the world’s leading reinsurers, late last year found that Waymo self-driving vehicles demonstrated better safety performance compared to human-driven cars after analyzing liability claims related to collisions from 25.3 million fully autonomous miles. The study found Waymo had an 88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims.
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