Waymo launches autonomous taxi in San Francisco, but not without caveats

Waymo’s driverless taxi is so far only available to a pre-approved group of passengers, and an operator behind the steering wheel makes sure everything runs smoothly.

The tech company uses all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs for its luxury taxi service, outfitting every car with what is ultimately envisioned as an SAE Level 5 autonomous driving system. Most of the driving is performed by a neural network trained on 20,000,000 miles (32 million km) of real-life driving along public roads and 10,000,000,000 miles (16 billion km) of computer-simulated driving.

The company first tested its robotic taxi system in Phoenix four years ago, and now holds a commercial license for driverless passenger transportation in that area. In San Francisco, however, having a person supervising the process is mandatory. The driver does not drive the car per se, but may need to react to possible emergencies.

All city residents can apply for admission to the testing phase. Those pre-approved must sign an NDA before they can hail a cab. Trips are free for the testers, but the company will be interested in learning about their experiences.