Waymo Said to Launch First Driverless Car Service in December

Waymo, the subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, is planning to launch the world’s first commercial driverless car service in early December, according to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the plans.

It will operate under a new brand and compete directly with Uber and Lyft. Waymo is keeping the new name a closely guarded secret until the formal announcement, said the person, who asked not to be identified.

“Waymo has been working on self-driving technology for nearly a decade, with safety at the core of everything we do,“ the company said in an emailed statement. A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment on the name of the new service or timing of the launch. It’s a big milestone for self-driving cars, but it won’t exactly be a “flip-the-switch“ moment.

Waymo isn’t planning a splashy media event, and the service won’t be appearing in an app store anytime soon, according to the person familiar with the program. Instead, things will start small, perhaps dozens or hundreds of authorized riders in the suburbs around Phoenix, covering about 100 square miles. The first wave of customers will likely draw from Waymo’s Early Rider Program, a test group of 400 volunteer families who have been riding Waymos for more than a year.

The customers who move to the new service will be released from their non-disclosure agreements, which means they’ll be free to talk about it, snap selfies, and take friends or even members of the media along for rides. New customers in the Phoenix area will be gradually phased in as Waymo adds more vehicles to its fleet to ensure a balance of supply and demand.

When Waymo starts its commercial program, there will be backup drivers in some cars to help ease customers into the service and to take over if necessary, according to the person familiar with the plans. The fleet of heavily modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans will drive themselves more than 99.9 percent of the time, based on data from Waymo’s test program submitted to California regulators.

Some volunteers in the Phoenix Early Rider Program won’t switch over to the new commercial program, the person said. Instead, they’ll continue to test new features and offer feedback to the company. For example, volunteers may receive cars with no backup driver with increasing frequency.