Waymo provides youth accounts for autonomous ride hailing: widespread promotion urgently in need of passenger volume

Waymo announced on Tuesday that it will provide account services for teenagers aged 14 to 17, starting in Phoenix. They stated that starting from Tuesday, parents in Phoenix can use their Waymo accounts to invite their teenagers to join the project, pairing them together. Once their accounts are activated, teenagers can use fully autonomous ride hailing services. Previously, Waymo required users to be at least 18 years old to register for a Waymo account, but as the company expands its ride hailing services more widely in US cities, it seeks to increase passenger numbers.

Waymo stated that it will provide "specially trained rider support agents" during teenage cheering rides and involve parents when needed. Teenagers can also share their travel status with their parents to keep track of their progress in real time, and parents will receive all their travel receipts. The youth account was initially only available to passengers in the Phoenix metropolitan area. A spokesperson stated that the youth account will expand to more markets outside of California and will provide the Waymo application in the future.

WaymoOne also stated that it will conduct tests in Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania, this fall, and added that the initial fleet of vehicles will be manually driven on more complex roads in Philadelphia, including downtown areas and highways. WaymoOne offers over 250000 paid trips per week in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas, and is preparing to bring fully autonomous driving to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington D.C. by 2026. In June of this year, Waymo announced plans to manually drive vehicles in New York, marking the first step towards potentially cracking the largest city in the United States. Waymo stated that it has applied for a license from the New York City Department of Transportation to allow it to operate autonomously in Manhattan, driven by a trained expert.

From the perspective of innovative technology, Waymo, the autonomous vehicle technology giant and a subsidiary of Google, has long been a leader in autonomous driving technology. It provides accounts for minors and allows them to use autonomous taxi services under the supervision of their parents. This is another entry of autonomous driving technology into people's daily lives, proving that the technological level of autonomous driving technology has been recognized by people. In the future, we may have a new understanding of the way we travel.

At the same time, in terms of social care, Waymo's move echoes the need for children to travel independently from their parents, as well as parents' anxiety about their children's travel safety. Due to the fact that every parent of a teenager or young person has opened a dedicated account, parents can view their child's travel status information through the mobile terminal app. This way, the child's travel route, compliance with traffic rules, and contact status with family members are all relatively clear, ensuring the safety of the child; Moreover, this kind of smart travel can also alleviate parents' worries to a certain extent, allowing them more time to deal with things outside the family.

However, the introduction of this resolution has also sparked controversy, such as the fact that autonomous vehicle technology is not yet fully mature. When problems or other emergencies occur in the car, it is necessary for children to solve them. The use of autonomous vehicles will also reduce daily parent-child communication between children and parents, which are issues that people need to pay attention to.

Overall, Waymo's launch of a youth dedicated account for autonomous ride hailing services is worth considering and exploring. This reflects the potential and application prospects of autonomous driving technology, and also indicates the social problems and challenges that autonomous driving technology will face. In the future development process, it is expected that autonomous driving technology will provide more diversified travel service models for society, targeting different age groups and diverse passengers.