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Waymo showed a video at SXSW that chronicled recent adventures in its fully driverless vehicle.
The Google/Alphabet spinoff has been using Chrysler Pacifica minivans to ferry riders around Phoenix.
The company plans to start a ride-hailing service using the tech.
At SXSW in Austin, Texas on Tuesday, Waymo showed a short video of its fully driverless car pilot program, currently underway in Phoenix, Arizona.
2018-03-13
The video was part of a talk given by Waymo CEO John Krafcik, an auto industry veteran who joined the company several years ago, back when it was still known as the Google Car project.
The Waymo driverless experiment has been underway in Phoenix since last year, using Chrysler Pacifica minivans outfitted with Waymo's laser-radar-based self-driving technology.
The big change, documented in the video, is the disappearance of the actual driver. For months, a human backup has been behind the wheel, but the company recently got the okay to let its cars chauffer people around without a human backup operator.
Check it out.
A Waymo Pacifica, in sunny Arizona, considered by most automakers to be a nearly ideal environment to test driverless cars. Great weather and big, wide streets are a plus.
Waymo
Waymo said that it has 600 Pacificas in service now, with plans to add thousands more.
That's right, no human at the wheel.
Waymo
People are amazed.
Waymo
"Members of the public have been using an app to hail our self-driving cars to get to work, school, and run errands, since early 2017," Waymo said in a statement.
Admittedly, it is a bit shocking to sit in the back and watch as the car drives itself.
Waymo
But riders are quickly delighted.
Waymo
And genuinely psyched about the new technology, which Google has been developing for years, racking up millions of miles.
Waymo
As you can see, the large roads and cleat sunny weather throw few major challenges at the tech.
Waymo
However, Waymo has also tested its vehicles in San Francisco, Michigan, and and Washington state.
It's possible to look forward to out truly driverless future. Here's a passenger using a smartphone.
Waymo
And here's a passenger who's catching some shut eye.
Waymo
Watch the entire video.
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Matthew is a Business Insider senior correspondent who covers transportation (and chess, guitars, home-audio equipment, cocktails, and sometimes classic rock). His focus is the global auto industry, including Tesla, a company he has chronicled since 2007. He also looks after Business Insider's annual Car of the Year award, announced every fall.He's written for The New York Times, Slate, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, HuffPost, and CBS Interactive. He's commented on the auto industry for a variety of media outlets, including Sirius XM, MSNBC, Radio France, KPCC, and KCRW. DeBord won the 2018 Ken Purdy Award from the International Motor Press Association.He's taught at New York University's Stern School of Business and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.His book "Return to Glory: The Story of Ford's Revival and Victory at the Toughest Race in the World" was published in 2017 by Atlantic Monthly Press and came out in paperback in June 2018. In the New York Times Book Review, Jonathan Kellerman called it a "page-turning synthesis of business book and adventure saga."
