Driverless taxi service Waymo can officially begin testing its autonomous vehicles in select areas of New York City, local officials announced.
Waymo, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, received a permit from the city that authorizes the testing of its self-driving cars with a trained safety specialist behind the wheel — the first to allow autonomous vehicle testing in New York.
The company can conduct the tests in areas of Manhattan, as well as in downtown Brooklyn, Reuters reports. State law reportedly requires a safety driver in autonomous vehicle tests.
Waymo originally filed for the permit earlier this year, marking its return to the city after an initial run of tests earlier in the decade. In recent weeks, its drivers have been manually operating Waymo cars in New York.
The testing in the nation’s largest city comes amid ambitious expansion efforts by Waymo and its potential robotaxi rivals, including Tesla and Uber. Waymo has already launched autonomous taxi services in the Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles markets, and partnered with Uber to add services in Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
Image credit: Waymo
