Waymo completes 8 million miles of testing on public road

Waymo, the automated mobility division of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) announced that it had recently reached the milestone of completing 8 million miles of testing their autonomous vehicles on public roads across the world.

This figure is double the distance Waymo had covered  till November 2017. The company also claims that it has been testing 25,000 miles every day (twice what the average American drives in a whole year). The company also claims to have driven 5 billion miles in its simulation.

Waymo’s exponential growth in terms of testing also suggests that the company may be mulling to kick-start commercial operations sooner than expected.

As many as 400 residents in Phoenix area in US state of Arizona have become a part of the Waymo’s pilot programme, through which they are using the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans on a daily basis.

Waymo is also expanding its fleet. Recently it added 3 new Jaguar i-Pace SUVs, which also demonstrates that Waymo also intends to electrify its autonomous solutions.

To further strengthen their growth, the company recently placed an order for 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to integrate them with Waymo’s autonomous technology.