Waymo, which announced the suspension of its self-driving car road testing activities in early March due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic this year, is expected to resume road testing in the San Francisco Bay Area on June 3.
Waymo is currently testing its self-driving cars on public roads in the San Francisco Bay Area through a partnership with Transdev North America, a vehicle and personnel services company. Transdev will provide drivers to assist Waymo with these tests. However, the exact number of self-driving cars Waymo plans to resume testing, as well as the number of drivers assigned to these vehicles, remains unclear.
Transdev North AmericaReply letterThe company stated that it will recall some drivers based on their skills, qualifications, and actual business needs. It also emphasized that it will gradually increase the number of drivers while ensuring adequate health and safety. For drivers who have not yet returned to work, Transdev North America stated that they will, in principle, still be required to maintain 40 hours of training per week in order to continue receiving wages.
As for WaymoPreviously shared dataEven though the impact of emotional distress has prevented its self-driving cars from being tested with human drivers, Waymo continues to increase its road test mileage through computer simulation training. To date, Waymo's self-driving cars have accumulated over 2000 million miles (approximately 3200 million kilometers) of road testing, and over 100 billion miles (approximately 160 billion kilometers) of simulated testing. Waymo is currently conducting road tests in over 25 cities across the United States.
In announcing the resumption of road testing, Waymo also emphasized that it will continue to strengthen employee safety and health management, follow the recommendations of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and maintain social distance and vehicle cleaning and disinfection.
