To Waymo, or to not Waymo...that is the question

In several other post, I have dived head-first into some of the most fascinating aspects of autonomous vehicles. What did not even seem possible 5-7 years ago, is practically commercially available (e.g., Tesla, certain Audi's, etc.) this very moment. Nevertheless, there is one company that has produced an autonomous vehicle that surpasses them all, and that my friends, is Waymo.

Dating all the way back to 2009, Google began their journey to produce a fully autonomous vehicle. Back then, there was really just a main focus on developing a vehicle that had self-driving capabilities. Google was able to surpass their expectations at the time, using a Toyota Prius as their initial vehicle. Even with exceeding their expectations in terms or range, it is important to know that Google was focused on autonomy in open, more regular patterned environments, such as a less-hectic freeway. As the note on their site:

We started focusing on complex environments, learning to navigate city streets with pedestrians, road work, traffic lights, and more.

However, this was not until the years between 2012 and 2015. But how exactly was Google able to map out these complex environments? Well, artificial intelligence is at the cornerstone of this movement. And as described in another post, AI is constantly improving and learning, allowing for this progression of autonomous vehicles in complex environments.

Interesting enough, the journey for what is now Waymo highlights another key component to autonomous vehicles: electrification. After the use of the Prius, Google went on to develop am improved autonomous vehicle with a hybrid Lexus SUV. And then in 2015, they developed a small electric vehicle which they called Firefly. As one can see, having an electric powertrain, whether that'd be hybrid or fully, allows an autonomous vehicle to work at a higher level and integrate more efficiently with AI. Not to mention, electric vehicles are better for the environment.

Waymo became official in 2016 when the Google self-driving project adopted the new name. Currently, Waymo is being tested and used with a hybrid version of the Chrysler Pacifica. Looking at the picture, one can see a lot of the key components that I have written about! Especially the hard to miss LiDar camera/sensor on the top of the minivan. Together, they are able to feed in a ridiculous amount of data into computer equipped with AI, and safely travel the everyday streets that we are acclimated to driving on.

To concisely conclude (and excite), the video to the right from Waymo elegantly describes how and why their vehicle is such a huge deal! Waymo is soon to provide a way for individuals to travel worry free, all while enabling the freedom to stay connected or complete work.

So now I ask myself and others the question, would you use Waymo?