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Waymo to Test Level 5 Autonomous Cars in California

After the state of California announced at the beginning of the month it would receive permit applications for fully autonomous cars tests on its roads, not many of the companies involved in the industry made a run for it.
Waymo to test Level 5 autonomy in California 1 photo
Photo: Waymo
The reason behind this is simple: not many of them are even close to creating a fully-autonomous system. The cars currently on the market are Level 3 at most, and only a handful of manufacturers have begun testing Level 4 technologies.

Waymo, formerly the Google self-driving car project, is however some years ahead and, according to various reports which surfaced this weekend, has already applied to get a permit to test fully autonomous cars in the Sunny State.

This would be, says The San Francisco Chronicle, the second company to have taken this course of action, with the first one’s identity still not being disclosed.

The publication says Waymo would be testing Level 5 cars near its Mountain View headquarters, but as the research progresses, it would expand its reach.

In light of the Uber fatal crash in Arizona, the state of California says that for such cars to get approval to drive on public roads, the companies operating them would have to prove the systems have been tested under controlled conditions that simulate the environment they are designed for.

Communities where they plan to operate would also have to be notified that such vehicles would be in the area. Any crash, no matter how serious, would have to be reported, as do any malfunctions of the autonomous system.

Waymo plans to be one of the biggest suppliers of autonomous vehicle services in the world. The scope of its planning was revealed in March, when the Tech company inked a deal with British manufacturer Jaguar for the delivery of 20,000 I-Pace vehicles over the coming years.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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