PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Waymo, the ride-hailing company with driverless cars, is testing its vehicles in Philadelphia starting this week. But you can’t hail one yet — and there are actual humans doing the driving as the test begins.
“To get to know the city, we'll have a limited fleet of vehicles, with trained human autonomous specialists behind the wheel manually driving through the most complex parts of the city, including downtown and freeways,” Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp said in a statement to KYW Newsradio.
“Folks will see our vehicles driving at all hours throughout various neighborhoods, from North Central to Eastwick, and from University City to as far east as the Delaware River.”
Waymo currently operates its autonomous vehicles in cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Karp said Philadelphia is among more than ten cities where the company is testing its service this year, including New York, Boston and Las Vegas. There’s no word if or when Waymo would begin ride-hailing service in Philadelphia.