The Information reported on Tuesday, October 3, that Alphabet, Inc. (NASDAQ:$GOOGL), the parent company of Google, is on the brink of rolling out a service with its self-driving cars that could act as a competitor to Uber and Lyft.
However, Waymo, which is Alphabet’s self-driving car company, has to fix a glitch before launching the service, according to The Information. The problem? The vans have trouble making left turns. How would it work? Well, the Chrysler vans would pick up and drop off passengers in Arizona. It would be monitored remotely, rather than with a “safety” driver.
Before rolling out, the cars are being tested and improved. It seems the company is making progress as Waymo recently posted a detailed blog post about how they are using simulations to train its car to learn tricky turns.
“At the corner of South Longmore Street and West Southern Avenue in Mesa, Arizona, there’s a flashing yellow arrow that permits cars to turn left,” Waymo wrote. “Navigating this type of intersection can be tricky for humans and self-driving cars alike — drivers must carefully move into a five-lane intersection and then find a gap in oncoming traffic. Turning left too soon may cause a driving hazard for oncoming traffic; making the move too late may mean frustrated drivers behind.”
Even though Alphabet is an investor in Uber and may do the same with Lyft in the near-future, the search engine behemoth clearly has ambitions to move into the transportation sector.
Featured Image: bgr
