Waymo’s next big test is coming: self-driving taxis in the snow – SlashGear

While Waymo has spread to more cities lately, none will pose the ultimate challenge that self-driving vehicles have yet to overcome. This is the ability of Waymo’s vehicles to navigate in winter conditions, including slush, snow and freezing rain. Waymo has so far selected the low-hanging fruit of warm American cities, including the perennially non-freezing locations of Los Angeles, Austin and Phoenix, where a suburb has made Waymo part of its public transportation system.

Waymo is well aware that in order to access the entire geography of not only the US, but other locations around the world, its self-driving robotaxis will have to travel in frigid weather and brave various forms of frozen precipitation. According to Waymo“…the Waymo Driver successfully navigates through rain, fog, sandstorms and freezing temperatures.” Next on Waymo’s agenda is for its self-driving vehicles to handle snow.

Waymo’s process for understanding how its vehicles can navigate in adverse weather conditions, such as winter, involves four steps: understanding the challenge, designing generalizable solutions, validating their capabilities, and scaling responsibly. It starts with the Waymo Driver (the robotaxi) learning that snow can range from dust to blizzard, with road conditions ranging from icy to snow-covered, and varying amounts of accumulated snow along the way. Waymo claims to have traveled “tens of thousands of miles in diverse, snowy conditions” in the upper US, allowing Waymo’s AI to learn what winter weather is and how to deal with it.

Waymo knows it needs to get through the winter to fully compete with other ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber, which are already transforming transportation with a number of self-driving cars. These services, largely operated by human drivers, can provide customers with rides year-round in a variety of weather conditions across most of the U.S., including winter. In a recent article in The edgeRobert Chen, Waymo’s weather product leader, stated, “This winter season is going to be a very important season for us.” This comment could indicate that Waymo could enter service in an area with winter weather sometime in late 2025 or early 2026. The company has already stated that it will start serving Washington, DC in 2026.

Another potential challenge for Waymo self-driving vehicles has a lot to do with the difference between human perception and machine perception. According to Phil Koopman, an expert on autonomous vehicle technology at Carnegie Mellon University, quoted in the Verge article, things like partially snow-obscured signs and lane markings can be difficult for robotaxis to understand unless they are specifically trained to recognize them. Simulations also improve understanding of the system. Waymo’s Robert Chen stated that the next generation of the Waymo Driver system will be designed to handle harsh winter conditions. In addition to each vehicle’s ability to alert other Waymo vehicles to particularly slippery spots, the vehicles’ sensors will be equipped with windshield wipers and stronger heating elements to keep them clear and unobstructed as they make their way across snowy, icy and muddy roads.