Waymo Bringing Fully Autonomous Vehicles To Atlanta

Autonomous car company Waymo announced their plans to bring their self-driving vans to Atlanta. From an article in Left Lane News:

The apparent leader in bringing self-driving technology to market, Waymo has recently ramped up its geographic expansion plans after spending many months operating on public roads around the Pheonix suburb of Chandler, Arizona.

The Atlanta announcement comes less than two weeks after the company showed one of its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans testing in San Francisco, home to General Motors’ Cruise unit. The fleet can also be found in Michigan, where engineers can refine the systems to eventually operate on snow and ice.

Georgia has been looking at how to handle the eventual mingling of self-driving cars with daily traffic on Georgia roads from a policy standpoint. There may be some resistance due to the newness of the technology, but autonomous vehicles may help alleviate some of the transportation woes we currently face.

There looks to be a natural synergy between Waymo and the metro region’s growth in the automotive sector: GM’s Research and Development center in Alpharetta, the Porsche Experience Center near Hartsfield-Jackson, Mercedes-Benz in Sandy Springs, and the recently announced new headquarters of PSA Group. Atlanta could easily become an epicenter of autonomous vehicle development.

I’ll also mention Apple’s work on a self-driving car, and their search for another North American headquarters. Connecting the two may be a bit of a stretch, but I believe that this shows that metro Atlanta is a destination for high-tech companies across industries.