The days of driverless taxis are soon upon us. Google’s Waymo is working on an autonomous taxi fleet which is modeled after the pilot program it currently offers outside of Phoenix, AZ. The fleet won’t just be autonomous, it will genuinely be driverless, with no humans other than the passengers. Imagine using an app to order a ride and not interacting with people at any step of the process.

 Waymo Chrysler Pacifica

Waymo will be upping its fleet of autonomous Chrysler Pacific minivans from 100 to 500, as to accommodate for a larger customer-base. Initially the service area will be limited to the Phoenix metro area, but will eventually cover an area larger than the size of Greater London. They say the public will be able to start taking the self-driving rides over the next few months in the suburb of Chandler, AZ. People experiencing the autonomous rides for the first few months will have a Waymo employee in with them so they can hit the “pull over” button in case of emergencies.

 Waymo Chrysler Pacifica

Waymo had had a rather large issue with Uber in the past months regarding some stolen information on the LiDar technology. The Google company’s progress has effectively put them ahead of Uber, as they’re still working on their autonomous approach for the commercial truck, via Otto. Uber has a small number of autonomous taxis testing out in Pennsylvania, but due to safety and political reasons, their progress is a bit stalled.