Waymo Building in Arizona, New York; Delivery Services Expand in U.S.

Since Waymo first opened up shop in 2016, down in Chandler, Arizona it has been a bit of a bumpy ride for their autonomous vehicles. In the wake of a fatal pedestrian accident in March of 2018 with an Uber-owned self-driving SUV, Waymo and others either pulled up stakes and moved or kept a very low profile. Now it seems all is well and autonomous vehicles are becoming the rage in the desert capital. Waymo introduced plans to build an 85,000 square foot facility in Mesa, just east of what is becoming an innovation-minded side of Phoenix.

City of Mesa and thank Mayor John Giles who shared, “Mesa is thrilled to welcome Waymo to our city where they will be growing and expanding their self-driving service and creating local jobs here in the city.”

Why just last year they expanded their Chandler Center to 60,000 square feet.

New York Joins Waymo Craze

According to an article found at techcrunch.com, if you work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, you could be one of the first consumers to ride in a self-driving car in the state of New York.

Back in 2017, Governor Andrew Cuomo touted the state’s first successful self-driving vehicle demonstration in partnership with Audi. New York’s state law pertaining to the testing of autonomous vehicles has been renewed through April 2019.

While New York still does not allow operators to deploy autonomous vehicles on public roads, its a different story on private roadways and that’s where Optimus Ride plans to drive.

The deployment comes after Optimus deployed vehicles in a mixed-use development located in Reston, Va. last month.

Optimus Ride brings self-driving cars to private communities in NY and CA

Don’t Forget About Oregon

In Eugene, OR, the Arcimoto company thinks it has solved the “last mile of delivery” problem for autonomous vehicles. Introducing the “Delivenator.”

The three-wheel mobility offering targets 100 city miles of range, 75-miles per hour, a 350-pound carrying capacity and 20 plus cubic feet of cargo space.

“With the Deliverator, we set out to create a vehicle that would solve the problem of local and last-mile delivery, which has traditionally been dominated by big, expensive, polluting delivery trucks and vans that often block traffic and increase congestion in urban environments,” said Mark Frohnmayer, President and Founder of Arcimoto, in a statement.

The Delivernator is designed to zip in and out of traffic, and the cargo container is customed designed to fit almost any package. Groceries, pharmaceuticals, dry cleaning are expected to be some of the products people will pay to have delivered. The Delivenator is supposed to make getting those products to you cheaper for the company providing the service. But they still have a ways to go if they want to compete for the robotic delivery service business in a crowded downtown or a suburban neighborhood.

Look at what Fed Ex is up to:
Using sensors and AI, the FedEx SameDay Bot™ is able to safely navigate to its destination and make deliveries directly to you. And they do it without a driver.

read more about the Delivenator

read more about Waymo