The company behind self-driving vehicles in 14 cities says the Queen City could be coming soon. Waymo has plans to unveil its services in Cincinnati, but not just yet.
Product Communications Manager Chris Bonelli confirms to WVXU that Waymo is in Cincinnati to begin mapping the city and surrounding areas.
"We’ve coordinated with city and state officials ahead of our arrival, but we wanted to introduce ourselves and let you know what you’ll start seeing around town," he said.
Drivers will soon begin seeing the company's Jaguar I-PACE vehicles moving around town using the "Waymo Driver" technology.
"They will drive in the downtown and surrounding areas — including Northern Kentucky — to create a high-definition map of the area, which is a key, first step in validating our technology in a new city," Bonelli said.
You won't be able to hail a Waymo car right away. Bonelli says the company — which is owned by Google parent company, Alphabet — isn't quite ready to launch here.
"For now, we are only here to map the area and will leave when the project is complete. When we are ready to return, we’ll reach out and share more."
Earlier this week, Waymo expanded to Denver, San Diego and Tampa.
Autonomous vehicles have been on Tri-State roads for several years, according to Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) CEO Mark Policinski.
"I do know that driverless cars are engaged on our roads. So they are out there, but don't fear these because they all have manual override. These are not the cars without brakes and steering," he said during a forum in 2021.
As WVXU previously reported, UC students have been testing self-driving vehicles since at least 2017. The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport tested autonomous vehicles to move luggage as early as 2021. And Ohio has had its foot on the gas accelerating an effort to grow its self-driving vehicle industry since 2019.
Drive Ohio landed a $7.5 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant in 2019 to test self-driving vehicles in rural Ohio. At that time, Drive Ohio and the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State, Ohio University and the Transportation Research Center were planning to have vehicles in Vinton and Athens counties.
The Associated Press reported in 2020 that Waymo's planned testing site would be near Columbus.
Ohio and Indiana have also tested self-driving tractor-trailers on state highways.
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