Google’s autonomous driving company Waymo will soon make its official debut as a full-scale service on public streets. Arizona gave Waymo transportation network company (TNC) status on January 24, following the company’s application on January 12, Quartz reported. The application contained photos of the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans Waymo will be operating in five states. The company is assembling a fleet consisting of thousands of these vehicles.
Waymo has been testing in Arizona since April, where select Phoenix residents were given 24/7 access to the taxi service for free. The fleet is composed of Pacifica Hybrid models, which are actually plug-in hybrids that have an all-electric range of 33 miles. At first there were engineers in the driver’s seats, but starting in November the hailed vehicles were driverless.
With its new TNC status, Waymo can start charging riders for its service, which will be accessed from a computer or an app. This could spell trouble for Uber, a company with serious self-driving aspirations of its own, and Lyft. This came prominently to light when Waymo filed a massive lawsuit against its rival. It accused Uber of stealing intellectual property relating to self-driving technology.
The conflict lasted over a year, and ended with the order for Uber to give Waymo a 0.34-percent equity stake in the company. At an estimated $72 billion value, Waymo’s settlement is worth close to a quarter of a billion dollars. Learn everything there is to know about the Waymo vs. Uber trial in our roundup.
Waymo plans to extend its service to other cities, and its TNC permit goes a long way towards this endeavor.
“As we continue to test drive our fleet of vehicles in greater Phoenix, we’re taking all the steps necessary to launch our commercial service this year,” a Waymo spokesman said in an emailed statement, Quartz reported. The rates to use the service have not yet been disclosed, though they should be competitive with Uber and Lyft.
Waymo’s cars have driven over 4 million self-driven miles since it began as a Google project in 2009. In a Medium post, the company states it also has 2.5 billion virtual miles under its belt, stemming from 25,000 virtual self-driving cars being run in a simulation.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.