Waymo has been ramping up its testing of autonomous vehicles for years, exploring how the technology works on roads during good conditions and snowy conditions, and now the company is looking at how the self-driving vehicles operate in heavy rains.
The tests are taking place during the summer months of hurricane season in Miami — one of the wettest cities in the U.S. that averages 61.9 in of rain a year. The tests will seek to discover what happens when an autonomous vehicle must deal with heavy noise that affects sensors as well as how other drivers behave on wet roads. Additionally, the tests will seek to help understand how rain affects vehicle movements to improve future versions of the hardware and software.
The first weeks of the trial will test vehicles’ sensor suite on a closed course in Naples, Florida. Later, self-driving Chrysler Pacifica and Jaguar I-Pace vehicles will be on public roads in Miami where they will be manually operated by test drivers to collect data on real-world conditions in heavy rain. Additional vehicles will be on highways in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers.
Waymo previously started its Early Rider program two years ago offering free rides to the public in order to test how self-driving cars work ferrying people from homes to local businesses or work. Later, the company began charging for the service as a prelude to a larger robo-taxi service Waymo plans to begin nationwide starting sometime this year.
