Self-driving Waymo minivans will assist UPS with deliveries
It's not just people who get to experience self-driving minivans in the Phoenix area.
On Wednesday, Google spin-off company Waymo announced a partnership with UPS, the package delivery service. Soon, Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans will be moving packages around instead of humans. The autonomous driving company is more than a one-trick pony, expanding beyond its robo-taxi service in the Phoenix area called Waymo One.
It's only in the Phoenix area to start, but Waymo vehicles will pick up items from UPS Store locations in Phoenix and bring them to a UPS facility in Tempe, just outside the city.
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The pilot starts in the next few months and comes as Waymo is testing its own driverless trucks on long-haul routes through New Mexico and Texas.
Don't get too excited about human-less cars for this, though. A very human safety driver will be monitoring the cars during the delivery pilot.
Fill up those Waymos.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
