What to Know
- Waymo said they’re ready to move forward with service in D.C. after driving and mapping 300,000 miles during two years of testing.
- Waymo said it is about to build new maintenance facilities in Ward 5 and Ward 7 to take care of their vehicles. The company said that will bring hundreds of jobs to the area.
- A Waymo representative acknowledged that D.C. has “unique” factors including motorcades and security infrastructure. “The reality is the Waymo driver is proven to be generalizable in a number of urban environments,” he said.
- A final vote on self-driving taxis in D.C. is expected this fall.
Waymo and competitors including Uber and Lyft sat down before the D.C. Council on Monday for a hearing on the future of autonomous vehicles in the District.
Outside the Wilson Building, union members said many human drivers will lose their jobs if D.C. gives self-driving taxis the green light.
”We’re talking about Uber and Lyft drivers, taxi drivers, truck drivers and transit workers. And we think that’s unfair,” said Jaime Contreras with SEIU.
Waymo? Hell no!” and “Driverless is dangerous,” signs held by supporters said.
Leaders from Uber, Lyft and Tesla showed up to explain how Waymo would affect them. Waymo staff took issue with what some said.
”If we want to talk about driver earnings, I think we would be remiss if we did not point out the fact that there are companies seated at this table today who control how much earnings drivers take home, and we have seen reports as of recent that these companies are taking nearly 40% of those earnings,” Matt Walsh with Waymo said.
Uber leaders answered.
“One AV [autonomous vehicle] takes the work of four drivers, and that’s real,” Harry Hatfield with Uber said.
Waymo said it is about to build new maintenance facilities in Ward 5 and Ward 7 to take care of their vehicles. The company said that will bring hundreds of jobs to the area.
They said they’re ready to move forward with service in D.C. after driving and mapping 300,000 miles during two years of testing. Waymo already is in operation in 11 cities, including Los Angeles and Phoenix.
”I think that every city likes to ask this question about, ‘Our city is so unique, how could you possibly have adapted here?’” Walsh said. “Listen I don’t want to put D.C. down. There are of course very unique things here: spontaneous motorcades, significant physical security infrastructure. But the reality is the Waymo driver is proven to be generalizable in a number of urban environments.”
D.C. leaders have made clear that Waymo has to be equitable and serve all eight wards with the same amount of service, without discriminating.
Waymo leaders said they believe their vehicles are seriously reducing serious injury collisions on roadways.
The council said more improvements are needed to make the vehicles more accessible, including for riders who use wheelchairs.
A final vote on self-driving taxis in D.C. is expected this fall.
If D.C. approves Waymos, they could operate in the District but not Maryland or Virginia, until leaders there approved. The matter could be up for a vote in Maryland and Virginia in 2027.
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