Waymo will begin testing at San Jose Airport this fall: an attempt at technological innovation

The Waymo department of Alphabet said Thursday that the autonomous vehicle department has been approved to start testing driverless vehicles at San Jose Minetta International Airport in San Jose, California this fall. We plan to offer paid ride hailing services at the airport later this year.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a press release, "San Jose is the center of the largest sports event in 2026, and Waymo is an ideal mode of transportation to help tourists move smoothly and safely in the area. ”A Waymo spokesperson stated on Thursday that in 2023, Waymo will launch at Phoenix Skyport International Airport, which has become Waymo's most popular destination in the Phoenix Metropolitan Service Area. If fully operational at San Jose Airport, it will become the second international airport served by the company.

Waymo has already launched commercial operations in Austin, Texas, as well as Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and continues to expand its autonomous driving and ride hailing services in the United States. In March of this year, Waymo expanded its service coverage to include 27 square miles of areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Palo Alto, and San Jose.

From a technical perspective, due to the complex traffic environment near San Jose Airport, including multiple driving scenarios, multiple vehicle types, and a large number of pedestrians, it can provide Waymo with many scenarios for complex autonomous driving algorithm testing, which is conducive to more stable and reliable perception, decision-making, and control system algorithm testing.

From a business perspective, airports are hubs for the flow of people and goods. Autonomous driving companies completing autonomous driving business within airport areas can create demonstration and influential application scenarios, attract more partners and corporate customers, and lay the foundation for their future application in larger transportation hubs, such as urban transportation development and operational business opportunities.

Secondly, in terms of social benefits, Waymo's unmanned driving test in complex airport road scenarios can help improve and revise the formulation of specifications and standards for autonomous driving related products. At the same time, it can also provide big data testing results for autonomous driving related enterprises, provide a basis for government departments to formulate reasonable and legal autonomous driving policy guidelines and planning blueprints, promote the safe and orderly development of the entire autonomous driving industry, contribute a real portrait to the general public's understanding of autonomous driving society, and disseminate traffic safety travel demonstration templates to the public. At the same time, safety should also be taken into account during the testing process, such as not causing harm to airport passengers or passing traffic participants.

For urban transportation ecology, an example of the application of autonomous driving on the road is the utilization of airports, which can bring about changes in regional traffic microcirculation through on road testing. If Waymo's technology can be combined with airport shuttle services to enable better transfer of unmanned vehicles around airports, such as through intelligent shuttle systems and intelligent scheduling cooperation between airports, parking lots, and stations, it is expected to further shorten the time for passengers to transfer and solve difficulties such as congestion in traditional shuttle services. Secondly, autonomous driving technology may also accelerate the intelligent construction of transportation infrastructure around airports, including roadside perception, vehicle road coordination, etc., and accumulate practical cases for building future smart airports.

In short, the autonomous vehicle testing at San Jose Airport is both a technological innovation and an exploration of the future urban transportation ecosystem. Based on technological innovation, new industry breakthroughs can be achieved, better integrating autonomous driving technology with urban transportation, and preparing for the creation of more intelligent, efficient, and safe urban transportation. Meanwhile, the testing of autonomous vehicles will also lay a model foundation for the practical application and promotion of autonomous driving technology.