Waymo announces plans to bring its newest fleet of robotaxis to American cities - including Las VegasWaymo is bringing its driverless cars to Sin City – as well as three other U.S. locations.Waymo will begin with employee-only driverless rides in Las Vegas before expanding to the public "soon," though the company did not announce an exact launch date in a Wednesday news release.Las Vegas riders will be among the first to experience Waymo's newest vehicle, Ojai, which the company calls "an oasis on wheels," designed with added comfort features. It will join Zoox and Motional in offering driverless rides in the Las Vegas area.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe other three cities that can also catch a Waymo are San Diego, Tampa and Denver, the company said Wednesday.As Waymo continues to expand its fleet, the company hasn't been without its problems.Waymo will begin testing fully autonomous rides in Las Vegas, as well as San Diego, Tampa and Denver, before opening the service to the public in the coming months (Waymo)A Waymo car in San Francisco hit a dog last December, just weeks after a beloved neighborhood cat was killed by one of the robotaxis.In January, a Waymo car in Santa Monica, California, hit a child near an elementary school after they ran across the street from behind a double-parking SUV.Also in January, a local news outlet in Austin, KXAN, reported that Waymo cars were illegally passing school buses as students crossed the street, even after the company updated its software to fix the issue.Las Vegas riders will be among the first to experience Waymo's new comfort-focused Ojai vehicle (Waymo)But Waymo insists its robotaxis are still safer than cars operated by human drivers.AdvertisementAdvertisement"Our vehicles have 12x fewer crashes involving injuries to pedestrians compared to human benchmarks," a Waymo spokesperson previously told The Independent.The Waymo Ojai robotaxi can carry four passengers, as the front driver's seat currently remains unusable for passengers (Waymo)Waymo also announced it has started testing its 6th-generation autonomous driving system in Hyundai IONIQ 5 vehicles, marking another step toward expanding its fully driverless fleet.Waymo currently operates 24/7 fully autonomous robotaxi services across 10 U.S. metro areas, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta and Austin.
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