From Titanium to Autonomous: Waymo’s Journey in Developing Fully Self-Driving Cars

Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, has been at the forefront of autonomous vehicle development since 2009. By 2015, the company began operating autonomous vehicles on public roads. Currently, Waymo provides Robotaxis services in Phoenix and San Francisco, fully autonomous vehicles without drivers. The company plans to expand its services to Los Angeles and Austin in the near future.

Waymo’s investment in autonomous technology has been significant, with the development of its own hardware including sensors and a vision system. The hardware used by Waymo includes 360-degree observation sensors around the vehicle, object detection sensors up to 300 meters away, and radars that detect other vehicles and objects in motion. Users can control the vehicle using buttons such as “start driving,” “lock,” “stop,” and “help.”

One of Waymo’s key features is its learning function that predicts the routes of other vehicles in complex traffic scenarios. This software uses a graphical neural network to analyze interactions between Waymo vehicles and other vehicles while predicting potential scenarios. In March 2021, Waymo received approval to operate autonomous vehicles in Los Angeles after a year of testing in the city.

As demand for autonomous technology continues to grow, competitors like General Motors and Amazon are also investing heavily in this field. It is likely that this trend will continue with other companies following suit in the near future as autonomous vehicles become more prevalent on our roads.

In conclusion, Waymo has been at the forefront of developing autonomous technology since its early days as Google X project called Project Titanium back in 2009. Its investment in hardware development has been significant with the creation of sensors and vision systems that help it operate fully autonomous vehicles without drivers on public roads. With competitors also ramping up their efforts to develop similar technology, it is likely that we will see more fully autonomous vehicles on our roads soon.