TU-TESL

• 22

(photo source: waymo Facebook page) according to foreign media reports, waymo, an automobile company owned by the parent company alphabet, ushered in a new milestone. John Krafcik, the company's chief executive, announced on January 6 that the company has driven 10 million miles on open roads in the past year, doubling the company's self driving mileage in the previous 10 years. At this year's CES exhibition, Krafcik said in an interview with foreign media: "our full-automatic driving mileage has exceeded 20 million miles, these are real automatic driving mileage. You need a lot of real world experience, which is essential, and you have to get it. " The company was born in 2009, when it was a Google research project called chauffeur. In 2016, it officially changed its name and obtained a license to provide taxi service in Phoenix one year later. Waymo does not disclose its revenue or profit figures. The company's self driving vehicles are mainly composed of Pacificas, which carry special hardware and software, and they are currently providing self driving taxi services in Phoenix. The service has about 1500 monthly active users. Krafcik also revealed that the company is using these autopilot cars to provide delivery services in Phoenix, and they are still operating automatic driving heavy trucks. Krafcik began his job as CEO of waymo in 2015, before which he served as CEO of auto America, and also led truecar, an online car price comparison start-up. When asked when waymo's services will be available outside Phoenix, Krafcik gave little detail. "We are considering expanding our services to other cities," he said Waymo also has extensive testing experience in California, but they are not licensed to operate fee based services in the state. Waymo's competitors include Uber, apple and other companies' self driving projects. The California motor vehicle authority previously said that waymo's mileage in 2018 was 1.3 million miles, ranking the highest among all self driving enterprises, followed by General Motors' cruise and start-ups zoox and nuro.