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Waymo driverless rides coming to Baltimore, Moore touts "long, proud tradition of embracing innovation"

By
Julie Hanson
Managing Editor, Northeast
Julie Hanson is managing editor of the Northeast region for CBSNews.com. She previously worked at CBS Boston for more than 20 years. Her prior experience includes WBBM in Chicago, WCAU in Philadelphia and WJAR in Providence.
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Julie Hanson

/ CBS Baltimore

Baltimore has been added to the list of U.S. cities that will welcome autonomous ride-hailing service Waymo to its streets.

Manual driving tests of Waymo vehicles begin this week. There will be a phased approach before fully autonomous rides are allowed in the city.

Waymo, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, currently offers driverless rides in five cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix and Atlanta. Testing was also announced Wednesday for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and St. Louis. Tests are already underway in additional cities, including New York.

Driverless rides in Baltimore

"Maryland has a long, proud tradition of embracing innovation and driving discovery," Gov. Wes Moore said in a written statement Wednesday. "This new partnership with Waymo marks the next chapter in that story -- and it's going to help spur growth, make our roads safer, and get more Marylanders from where they live to where opportunity lies."

The first phase of Waymo hitting the streets of Baltimore will have their vehicles driven fully manually. After that, there will be a period of autonomous driving with trained specialist in the vehicles. Fully autonomous ride-sharing would come at a future, unnamed date.

"As we do in all of our cities, we will engage the community, first responders, and local and state officials to ensure a safe and successful deployment of our technology," the company said in a statement.

Waymo testing and safety

Waymo said Baltimore is one of 20 cities it plans to expand into, including Minneapolis, New Orleans, Miami, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Seattle, Nashville, San Diego, Las Vegas, Detroit, Houston and Orlando. Internationally, London and Tokyo are in their expansion plans.

Waymo's testing has not been without issues. Last month, a self-driving Waymo was caught on tape near Atlanta driving past a stopped school bus that had it's flashing lights on. That same month, police in the San Francisco Bay Area pulled a Waymo over for making an illegal U-turn. 

The company told CBS News that  shows 91% fewer serious injury crashes, and 92% fewer crashes injuring a pedestrian, compared to human drivers.

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