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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 18 June 2020
Driver free but virus fee? Robo-car firms hit new speed bump

DETROIT (AP) — The latest in inclement weather. This
challenge for the autono- despite its use of multiple
mous vehicle industry: How laser, radar and camera
to assure passengers that sensors connected to artifi-
the car they are getting in cial intelligence.
is virus free, even if it doesn't Cadariu said Waymo has
have a driver. a team in the Detroit area
Widespread use of autono- working on snow and wet
mous vehicles already had roads, while other teams in
been delayed by a March Florida and San Francisco
2018 fatal crash involv- are figuring out heavy rain
ing an Uber test vehicle in and fog.
Tempe, Arizona, forcing the Waymo also is investing
industry to pause to make heavily in technology to
sure its vehicles are safe. keep sensors clean so they
Now it has to deal — just can always view the road,
like other ride-hailing com- something it sees as im-
panies and traditional taxis portant to reaching large-
— with passenger anxi- scale services, he said.q
ety over getting into tight
spaces with people who
may have the virus, or after
infected people who rode
in the vehicles before them. In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, a skylight is reflected in the rear window of a Waymo driverless
An executive with self-driv- car during a Google event in San Francisco.
ing car company Waymo Associated Press
said Wednesday that the
coronavirus pandemic ply companies are now around germs," he said. troit factory where stock
forced it to put its limited focused on putting tech- The Arizona vehicles have vehicles are modified with
ride service in the Phoenix nologies in place to clean been delivering school sup- autonomous sensors and
area on hold to make sure vehicles between rides, plies, protective equipment hardware. "We're really at
human backup drivers and Cadariu said. and food for nonprofits in just the beginning in terms
passengers were safe. The technologies, which he the meantime. of scale."
The passenger-carrying ser- did not identify, have been Waymo, seen by many Waymo has gradually ex-
vice hasn't resumed yet, ready for the last few years, as the leader in autono- panded its service around
but testing restarted on he told the Society of Auto- mous vehicle technology, Phoenix and now can run
May 8. Some of the rides motive Analysts' webinar. is a ways from running a autonomously in an area
were shifted toward deliv- Waymo is looking at what large-scale ride-hailing ser- about the size of San Fran-
ery, Patrick Cadariu, Way- to do between rides when vice with its Chrysler Paci- cisco, Cadariu said. The
mo's head of supply chain there isn't time to return to fica minivans and Jaguar company said that before
operations, said on a webi- a depot for a full cleaning, I-Pace electric SUVs, he the pandemic, it was run-
nar. Cadariu said. said, without giving a tar- ning 1,000 to 2,000 rides
Waymo, a unit of Google "Those are the sort of ques- get date. per week. Between 5% and
parent Alphabet Inc., has tions that people are think- "The way we scale our 10% were fully autonomous
been running the service ing through both at Way- technology, the way we without human safety driv-
with selected riders since mo and outside of Waymo scale our business will be ers, Waymo said.
2018, sometimes without right now given how the incremental, safe and The company, however,
human backup drivers. pandemic has affected thoughtful," said Cadariu, has yet to solve the difficult
Waymo and outside sup- us and also our anxieties who also runs Waymo's De- issue of self-driving vehicles

Facebook aims to help voters, but won't

block Trump misinfo

AP Technology Writer es and voting by mail. It will Mark Zuckerberg, continue policies," Zuckerberg wrote
Facebook is launching a draw the information from to face criticism for not re- earlier this month.
widespread effort to boost state election officials and moving or labeling posts by In a USA Today opinion
U.S. voter turnout and pro- local election authorities. Trump that that spread mis- piece Tuesday, Zuckerberg
vide authoritative informa- The information hub, which information about voting reaffirmed that position.
tion about voting — just as will be prominently dis- by mail and, many said, en- "Ultimately, I believe the
it doubles down on its pol- played on Facebook news couraged violence against best way to hold politicians
icy allowing politicians like feeds and on Instagram protesters. accountable is through
President Donald Trump to later in the summer — is "I know many people are voting, and I believe we
post false information on similar to the coronavirus in- upset that we've left the should trust voters to make
the same subject. formation center the com- President's posts up, but our judgments for themselves,"
The social media giant is pany launched earlier this position is that we should he wrote. "That's why I think
launching a "Voting Infor- year in an attempt to el- enable as much expres- we should maintain as
mation Center" on Face- evate facts and authorita- sion as possible unless it open a platform as possi-
book and Instagram that tive sources of information will cause imminent risk ble, accompanied by am-
will include details on regis- on COVID-19. of specific harms or dan- bitious efforts to boost voter
tering to vote, polling plac- Facebook and its CEO, gers spelled out in clear participation."q