Alphabet-owned Waymo unveiled its sixth-generation driver system on Monday, with a more efficient sensor setup. Although the number of cameras and LiDAR sensors has been reduced compared to the current platform, the self-driving vehicle’s new setup is designed to maintain safety levels. Once it’s ready for public rides, it will run alongside the current generation.
CNBC reports that the new system is built into Geely Zeekr electric vehicles. Waymo first announced its collaboration with the Chinese electric carmaker in late 2021. The vehicles on the new platform are boxier than the current generation, which is based on Jaguar I-PACE SUVs. The sixth-generation fleet built by Zeekr is said to be more accessible, including a lower step, higher ceiling and more legroom – with roughly the same total space as the Jaguar-based model range.
The sixth-generation Waymo Driver reduced the number of cameras from 29 to 13 and the number of LiDAR sensors from five to four. Alphabet says they work together with overlapping fields of view and safety-focused redundancies, improving performance in a variety of weather conditions. The company claims the new platform’s field of view is up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) in day and night and “a range of” weather conditions.
Waymo says the new system is modular, allowing it to “swap out different sensor components to adapt to the specific conditions of each operating environment,” such as more thorough sensor cleaning for vehicles in colder cities. CNBC clarified that the cleaning system includes wipers that can remove most of the dirt and moisture.
The company says that thanks to “regular driving in newer cities,” the sixth-generation driver works reliably even in extreme heat, fog, rain and hail. That makes sense considering that the cities currently approved are all in relatively clear and dry climates. (CNBC reports that Waymo has tested it in Detroit, Buffalo, and NYC.) Currently, Waymo only operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin. Since launching in 2018, the company’s fleet has been making around 50,000 paid autonomous rides per week.
Waymo says the new generation has already logged thousands of miles of real-world driving experience (and “millions more” in simulations). The company expects the system to be ready for consumers faster than previous models – about half as fast – because it has learned from the system’s “shared knowledge” from previous generations.
