Waymo One -- the self-driving taxi service from Google's autonomous car company -- officially launched in December, but it hasn't been available to many people. That could change.
In a blog post Tuesday, the company announced a new 85,000-square-foot technical service center in Mesa, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. The taxi service — available through an app that orders Waymo-ified Chrysler Pacifica minivans — has only been available for about 400 "early riders" in the Phoenix area, but Waymo says it will open up to more people. It's just not clear when that will happen.
Waymo says the new space will "more than double our capacity to service, maintain and grow our fleet of Waymo One cars." That seems to indicate it will expand its service soon, even if only for more people in the Phoenix area. (The cars still aren't entirely self-driving, though. There are "safety operators" up front.)
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Waymo was the first to launch a full-fledged autonomous car service, but others are close behind. General Motors' Cruise says it is on track to offer a self-driving taxi service like Waymo's in San Francisco by the end of this year. Lyft offers self-driving pick-ups in parts of Las Vegas. Uber once had a taxi service in mind and offered beta rides through its app, but after a fatal crash last year, it has restricted testing to a limited number of vehicles in Pittsburgh, and those rides are no longer available to the public.
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