Driverless Cars Are Coming To Atlanta In The Form Of Minivans
A Chrysler Pacifica hybrid outfitted with Waymo’s suite of sensors and radar is shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017.
Autonomous cars will soon make their way to the streets of Atlanta.
Waymo will start testing self-driving minivans, Chrysler Pacificas, throughout the city.
Waymo’s parent company is Alphabet Inc. It spun off Google in 2016. The company hasn’t said when drivers in Atlanta can expect to see these vehicles.
It’s already testing autonomous cars in 24 other cities from Kirkland, Washington to Austin, Texas.
James Kuhr, with the University of Texas-Austin’s Center for Transportation Research, said eventually the driverless vans become just like everyday vehicles.
“You get a lot of people who are interested in the technology and kind of want to be playful with it,” he said. “I think that pretty soon it becomes normal. If you’ve ever ridden in one, you get bored pretty quickly.”
Michael Hunter teaches Transportation System Engineering at Georgia Tech. He said it’s still unknown how Atlanta drivers, who can sometimes be aggressive, will react to these vehicles.
“If I know that car has safety features in it, then it’s going to do everything it can not to be an accident,” Hunter said. “Does that enable you as a driver to be more aggressive to it? When you’re making your merge, do you cut it off because you know that car is going to hit its brakes?”
Atlanta will be the easternmost United States city to see autonomous Waymo cars on its streets. The company had previously tested cars as far east as Detroit.
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