Waymo takes testing to the next level: no human even in the driver’s seat

Waymo, the company behind the autonomous automobile’s you’ve seen cautiously cruising up and down the streets of Santa Monica, has announced it will be advancing its testing to the next level, driving with no human so much as even sitting in the driver’s seat. When this near-final phase of testing begins, it will be the first time any fully autonomous car has driven in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. There were 18 minor contact events that were too minor to meet the tow-away and police-report criteria, with 55 percent of those being the result of a human driver hitting a stationary Waymo vehicle. While the Waymo vehicles also incorporate cameras and radar, LiDAR offers a level of accuracy for 3D mapping at a resolution hundreds of times higher than radar and there are several of these mounted over the exterior in key positions. I like human contact and human interaction,” said Santa Monica resident Cindy Smith.