Waymo has its sixth generation of autonomous driving technology ready

Waymo, the robotaxi company owned by Alphabet, has just unveiled the sixth generation of its autonomous driving technology, known as the Waymo Driver. This technology, which has already been integrated into the company’s new electric vehicles supplied by the Chinese manufacturer Zeekr, comes with significant improvements over previous versions.

One of the main novelties is the reduction in the number of cameras needed for the system to work, from 29 to just 13. In addition, the number of laser radars has decreased from five to four. The system also incorporates six radar sensors and a set of external audio receivers -EARs-, which suggests an improvement in the vehicle’s ability to interact with its environment in a more sophisticated way.

Waymo explains that although the system has been simplified, redundancies remain essential in an autonomous driving system to provide safe backup functions and to guarantee its reliability, especially in unexpected weather conditions. In this way, the vehicle can cope with adverse conditions such as extreme heat, fog, rain and even hail with greater safety and confidence.

A growing sector

Over the past few months, Waymo has experienced significant growth in its passenger transport service using autonomous vehicles. Recently, the company surpassed the milestone of 100,000 paid rides per week, a notable leap in a very short time, since until not long ago it was recording 50,000 paid rides per week. This exponential growth in just a few months is clear proof of the growing acceptance and the level of demand this service is achieving.

As we told you in a previous post, Alphabet recently reinforced its commitment to Waymo by investing 5 billion dollars in the company, with the clear intention of positioning it as the world’s leading autonomous driving company. This financial support not only underlines the confidence in Waymo’s technology, but also opens the door to future expansions and improvements in the service, with the aim of revolutionising urban transport and making autonomous driving a everyday reality.