Waymo and the acceleration of autonomous vehicles

The sightings are becoming more common — a Waymo out in the wild.

And more are on the way. Waymo and Lyft announced a joint partnership with rideshare liaison Flexdrive at an unveiling on Thursday, October 1. The partnership includes an 80,000-square-foot facility near the Nashville International Airport. Workers at the facility will clean, inspect, and repair autonomous vehicles on a 24/7 basis.

But the public sentiment around self-driving vehicles is still unclear. Many refuse to set foot in one, yet Waymo insists hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers have used them. In this episode, we’ll speak with reporters about public sentiment, the technology that makes AV’s (autonomous vehicles) possible, and how emerging technologies influence public policy.

Stream the full episode at youtube.com/@wpln.

This episode was produced by Josh Deepan. 

Guests:

• Sarah Grace Taylor, Nashville Banner Reporter
• Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, KQED Transportation Reporter
• Josh Deepan, Multimedia Producer, This Is Nashville

Further Reading:

Hundreds of Waymos coming to Nashville with new Waymo, Lyft facility [WSMV]