Waymo announced it new cheaper sensor suite-outfitted electric vehicle that is made in China by Zeekr. The Chinese-made vehicles are expected to have an increase tariff of 100% this
Waymo’s 6th-generation system builds on the capabilities of its current 5th-generation system, which has been instrumental in helping Waymo scale its service to some of the densest cities in the United States and improving road safety where it operates. With 13 cameras, 4 lidar, 6 radar, and an array of external audio receivers (EARs), Waymo’s new sensor suite is optimized for greater performance at a significantly reduced cost, without compromising safety. It provides the Waymo Driver with overlapping fields of view all around the vehicle, up to 500 meters away, day and night, and in a range of weather conditions.
Waymo’s suite of sensors — complete with camera, lidar, and radar — works in unison to provide the Waymo Driver with complementary, overlapping views of its surroundings.
Redundancies are essential in an autonomous driving system to provide safe backup functions for assured reliability and for unexpected weather. That’s why the Waymo Driver has a surround view of the world from three complementary sensing modalities. With an enhanced camera-radar surround view and an even more capable system of lidars, Waymo’s 6th-generation sensor suite can safely navigate the myriad of events it might encounter on an even larger set of road conditions.
Through advancements in sensor technology and strategic placement, Waymo has been able to reduce the number of sensors while maintaining its safety-critical redundancies. This approach prioritizes safety while also allowing for optimizations of its autonomous driving system. Complementing this efficiency, Waymo can swap out various sensing components to match the specific conditions of each operating environment, like adjusting sensor cleaning for vehicles in colder climates.
Waymo’s current system allows it to provide safe and reliable service to riders in the cities where it operates, even in extreme heat, fog, rain, and hail. Through regular road trips to newer cities, Waymo has deepened its understanding of winter weather’s impact on its technology and operations and applied these valuable insights directly to its 6th-generation system. For example, since Waymo’s vehicles are exposed to the elements for long periods without manual intervention, the company implemented preventive measures for each sensor to maintain a clear view of its surroundings, whether driving through a buggy Texas road or operating in freezing temperatures. Complementing these protective strategies, Waymo builds significant margins into its sensor capabilities to ensure reliable performance even in adverse conditions, in turn increasing each modality’s range.
Waymo’s 6th-generation system undergoing a combination of closed course testing, simulation, and public road testing.
Coming to more riders, faster
Now with six generations of hardware manufactured and integrated into thousands of vehicles, Waymo has significant experience developing and operating fully autonomous technology at scale. To safely and swiftly integrate the next generation Driver into its fleet, Waymo tests and validates its new hardware — from the component to the system level — through a rigorous regimen of structured tests, real-world driving, and simulation.
Waymo’s 6th-generation sensor suite already has thousands of miles of real-world driving experience under its wheels and millions more in simulation. The Waymo Driver learns from the collective experiences gathered across Waymo’s fleet, including previous hardware generations. This shared knowledge drastically reduces the miles needed to train and validate the underlying foundation models that autonomously drive Waymo’s vehicles, accelerating and enhancing the development of each new generation of Waymo Driver. With safety as its guiding principle, the system’s performance in simulation shows promising indications that Waymo is on track to begin operating without a human behind the wheel in about half the time.
Many folks have already seen Waymo’s 6th-generation hardware suite in action on public roads as part of its testing process. As Waymo continues preparing its latest Driver to serve riders, it encourages followers to stay close on social media for updates throughout the development process. In the meantime, if someone is eager to experience the future today, the Waymo Driver is only a few taps away.