Houstonians have the opportunity to see driverless vehicles in action. Google’s autonomous-driver sister company, Waymo, announced Tuesday that it’s initiating road trips this summer for testing and exploration in Houston, Orlando and San Antonio.
The road trip consists of about 10 vehicles driving around some Houston neighborhoods, including Midtown, Norhill and Greenway, and the Interstate 45, Interstate 10 and Interstate 69 highways. The vehicles will first be driven manually and then autonomously with a driver present behind the wheel, according to a Waymo representative.
Waymo says its goal is to test its technology in new cities and understand how Houstonians travel on the city’s roadways. Company representatives plan to meet with residents and learn their transportation needs.
In other cities, Waymo teams have worked directly with local officials and first responders. The company also meets with local organizations that focus on accessibility considerations.
The road trip will be completed by the end of summer.
This was announced on Instagram:
Waymo is now in Austin, so I suppose this could be telegraphing future expansion plans, or it could just be places there engineers wanted to visit. I assume “Norhill” means my neighborhood, so I’ll get to see more weird vehicles toodling about. I note that there are no dates specified, though this Current story says they’re arriving “this week” in San Antonio, so maybe they’re already here. I’ll keep my eyes open, and we’ll see how they do on our streets. Spectrum News has more.