Waymo Adding Up to 20K Jaguar SUVs to Self-Driving Taxi Fleet

Waymo is teaming up with Jaguar to boost the luxury cistron of its driverless ride-hailing service.

Alphabet'due south democratic car unit and Jaguar Land Rover will design and engineer a fully self-driving version of the automaker's all-electrical I-PACE sport-utility vehicle. In a web log postal service, Waymo said that over "the next few years" it expects to add "upwards to twenty,000" cocky-driving Jaguar I-PACEs to its self-driving taxi fleet, which also includes Chrysler Pacifica minivans.

"Imagine a earth where y'all tin take a self-driving minivan to the baseball game with family, and a self-driving I-PACE home afterward a night out—in both cases, a auto perfectly suited for your needs," the Waymo team wrote. "That's the world we're building."

Waymo plans to start testing the new cocky-driving I-PACE after this twelvemonth. The vehicles "will soon be playing a vital full-time office in Waymo's driverless transportation service," information technology said.

Last April, Waymo launched an "early rider program" in the Phoenix metropolitan area offer people rides in its self-driving Chrysler Pacificas, admitting with a Waymo employee behind the wheel. In November, the company started allowing the minivans to operate on Phoenix roads without anyone behind the wheel and with passengers onboard.

Rival Uber recently put the brakes on its self-driving trials following a fatal crash in Tempe, Arizona on March 18. The National Transportation Prophylactic Lath and National Highway Traffic Safety Assistants are currently investigating the crash, which is believed to exist start fourth dimension an autonomous vehicle has killed a pedestrian on public roads.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's adept on fitness and smart home products. Education yoga for well-nigh 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fitness trackers, center rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, force training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela besides tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, but to proper name a few.