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<\/a>What to Expect in December<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen 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\u2019s test program submitted to California regulators.<\/p>\n
Some volunteers in the Phoenix Early Rider Program won\u2019t switch over to the new commercial program, the person said. Instead, they\u2019ll continue to test new features and offer feedback to the company. For example, volunteers may receive cars with no backup driver with increasing frequency.<\/p>\n
Waymo\u2019s plan is to plant the seeds of these drivereless car programs in different metro areas across the US, and to gradually expand outward. It\u2019s a careful, almost plodding process meant to avoid the bad customer experiences and avoidable crashes that could set a program back by years.<\/p>\n
By the time Waymo\u2019s service becomes a household name in the US, like industry giants Lyft or Uber, the company will have mapped and tested every road in excruciating detail. Waymo\u2019s turtle approach is in marked contrast to Tesla Inc\u2019s share strategy.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk\u2019s trailblazing electric carmaker is working on a self-driving approach that would activate almost simultaneously across a nationwide fleet of hundreds of thousands of cars.<\/p>\n
Waymo\u2019s Phoenix program may seem modest compared with that plan, but last week Waymo won approval to begin testing cars with no backup drivers in California\u2019s Silicon Valley, where Tesla\u2019s Autopilot team is based. Waymo already has dozens of self-driving vans operating out of Alphabet\u2019s X lab in Mountain View to provide a daytime taxi service for employees.<\/p>\n
The next step will be to start an Early Rider Program based on the Phoenix model and eventually launch a commercial program in Musk\u2019s backyard.<\/p>\n
There are other ways to quantify Waymo\u2019s early advantage against its rivals. California requires detailed reporting from every company testing cars there, and the results show Waymo far ahead of competitors testing on public roads in the state. The chart below shows the number of miles driven, on average, before a human took control of the car.<\/p>\n
How Much Will It Cost?<\/strong><\/p>\n Waymo is just beginning to experiment with pricing models. For now, the program is more about learning how to safely scale driverless cars than making money. At launch, Waymo will offer straightforward fares that are competitive with Uber and Lyft.<\/p>\n A view of the Waymo app in July by Bloomberg showed a streamlined user-interface that resembled Google\u2019s navigation app, with the additional functions of a standard ride-hailing app.<\/p>\n Pricing may become more nuanced as Waymo collects more data from the commercial program. Once the backup safety drivers are taken out of the equation and Waymo figures out how to charge for in-ride entertainment and advertising, analysts expect base fares to drop.<\/p>\n