Waymo expands to Michigan to test self-driving cars in the snow

Waymo is heading east for the winter to embrace the slick, snowy roads of the Midwest.

The Google self-driving spinoff announced it will expand its autonomous testing to Michigan in order to train its platform in cold weather conditions, calling the state its "winter wonderland." The company's CEO John Krafcik says it has piloted its cars in cold weather since 2012, but expanding the project to public roads in Michigan will give it more experience with the unpredictable road conditions that come with snowy weather.

Waymo will launch the program in the Greater Detroit area, starting in Novi, Michigan. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's tracked the project's progress on self-driving cars since its days with Google X before Waymo's official formation — Novi is home to a self-driving development center that Google opened last May.

Cold weather testing is an important aspect for self-driving systems to master, especially because many human drivers struggle in snowy conditions. The unpredictable East Coast climate was one of the big reasons Lyft partnered with autonomous startup nuTonomy (which was just acquired by Delphi) to launch a passenger trial in Boston, and GM's Cruise will hit the streets of NYC.

Michigan is one of the major hubs of self-driving activity outside of its epicenter in California, which can partly be attributed to its history as the cradle of automotive development in the US. The state's legislature also passed some of the most lax self-driving development laws in the country last year, encouraging companies to bring their pilot programs to its roads.

GM launched a test program on Michigan's public roads using autonomous Chevy Bolts last year. The University of Michigan opened MCity in Ann Arbor back in 2015, a 32-acre facility for autonomous development that garnered investments from several major automakers and tech companies with skin in the self-driving game. Ford, meanwhile, is using its self-driving prototypes in Ann Arbor to deliver Domino's pizza.

As self-driving projects mature, more pilots will expand beyond California. Drivers in Michigan should get ready to see more autonomous prototypes out on the roads — if the snowy conditions aren't too blinding, of course.