Look Out! Waymo to Test Driverless Taxis in Seattle Soon

Waymo may be more familiar to people as the Google Self-Driving Car project, now its an actual tech, taxi and transportation company that carries passengers in San Francisco, Phoenix, and LA.

  Waymo to begin testing in Seattle

 Geekwire is reporting they will soon begin testing 10-12 cars in various areas of Seattle with their self-driving tech.  Geekwire says seveal models will be among the test cars:

"Waymo will be testing electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs and EVs from Zeekr, a Chinese automaker under the Geely Holding parent company, which also owns Volvo. Karp described the Zeekr EVs as “adorable little blue boxes.”

Due to Seattle's wetter climate, these cars will have what's called sixth-generation Waymo wet-weather technology.

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However, don't get your hopes up about getting a taxi anytime soon. Even if Waymo's testing goes as or even better than planned, it will be some time before such service can start.

The problem lies with WA state government. Like many other areas, WA state is lacking or has confusing and gap-filled regulations regarding a framework to oversee these forms of transportation.

Legislators are not exactly racing to establish a set of regulations to oversee and guide driverless taxis, yet the state is dumping hundreds of millions into trying to get people to buy electric vehicles.

The state also suffers from virtually no charging infrastructure, but that issue was not discussed in the information released by Waymo. Geekwire reports city officials claim they welcome such tech, but:

"General Motors and Microsoft-backed Cruise tested cars in Seattle in 2023 — to also learn from the wet, hilly environment. But the company shut down a Bellevue engineering center later that year and GM exited the robotaxi market in December 2024."