If you see a white car with periscope-like black sensors driving around Seattle and Bellevue, it’s probably part of a new fleet of autonomous vehicles, or AVs — cars that can operate without a driver.
Waymo, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, recently launched the fleet of white Jaguar SUVs in the area. Laura Milstead, a spokesperson for the City of Bellevue, said Waymo is testing up to eight cars at a time on the road in Bellevue. It is also testing the cars in Seattle.
For now, all of the vehicles are being operated with drivers behind the wheel. The company said this is to familiarize the cars’ system with the region’s weather and road signage. Its goal is to eventually deploy their driverless taxi service in the Pacific Northwest.
Stefan Winkler, the mobility solutions manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation, said officials are considering driverless taxis, but it’s too early to say when that might happen.
“For commercial operations to actually begin here, the state law would have to be updated to create a process for paid AV rides,” Winkler said.
Democratic state Rep. Shelley Kloba has sponsored legislation to regulate AVs. She wants to see more safety guardrails put in place before the state allows a driverless taxi service.
“I think having specific safety requirements that need to be met before they're out on the street would go a long way in establishing consumer confidence,” she said.
Kloba is pushing for a bill that would hold autonomous vehicles and the companies that operate them to the same standards as human drivers following a crash.
Waymo currently operates driverless taxis in other cities, including San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently opened a preliminary investigation into whether Waymo vehicles had violated school bus safety laws. The agency closed a previous investigation involving the company's cars in July.
