Waymo opens driverless rides to the public in Phoenix (2020)
Waymo opened its fully driverless ride service to the general public in the Phoenix suburbs, with no safety driver in the car. It was the first company to offer paid, no-driver rides to ordinary riders. Waymo used a mix of cameras, radar, and laser sensors.
The service ran in a limited, mapped area and expanded slowly over the next few years.
Waymo grew into paid service in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities, becoming the benchmark rival Tesla is measured against.
Waymo proved driverless ride-hailing can work commercially, but chose sensor-heavy hardware. Tesla is now attempting the same milestone with cameras alone.
