Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of Alphabet Inc., said on Tuesday it will begin test drives of its robotaxis in Denver and Seattle this week, with human safety drivers behind the wheel.
“We’ll arrive with a mixed fleet of Jaguar I-PACE with the 5th-generation Waymo Driver and Zeekr RT vehicles equipped with our 6th-generation Waymo Driver. ” a company said in a blog post.
Waymo announced the tests in blog posts, signaling a phased approach to expanding its driverless ride-hailing service across the United States.
The test vehicles will include a mix of fully electric Jaguar iPace and Geely Zeekr AV models. Safety drivers, employed by Waymo, will control steering and braking during the trials while the company gathers operational data to refine its autonomous systems.
Waymo already operates commercial driverless services in Austin, Texas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. In some markets, including Austin and Atlanta, rides are available only through the Uber app, while in others, customers must use Waymo’s dedicated Waymo One app. The company has also begun similar testing in New York after recently receiving permits to operate robotaxis in the city.
Waymo faces growing competition globally in the autonomous ride-hailing market. Baidu’s Apollo Go service operates driverless taxis across several cities in China, while Tesla has obtained a permit to run a ride-hailing service in Texas and is testing manned robotaxi operations in Austin and San Francisco.