Self-driving cars have been popping up across the country, but it’s unclear how soon — if ever — we’ll see them in Illinois.
Waymo calls itself the world’s first autonomous ride-hailing service and the “most experienced driver.”
It operates in five cities — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Phoenix and Austin. Nineteen more are being added in the next couple of years.
Waymo started as Google’s self-driving experiment in 2009 and became its own company under Alphabet in 2016.
Its first fully autonomous ride on public roads was in Austin in 2015, and it launched its rider-only service in 2020 in Phoenix.
“We’d be thrilled for Chicago residents to have the chance to experience the magic of Waymo for themselves, and we are advocating for changes at the state level that would provide clarity on fully autonomous operations in Illinois,” Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher told Axios in a statement.
Teicher said the company is “engaging with state lawmakers” but didn’t share who specifically or the status of those conversations.
Illinois Department of Transportation spokesperson Maria Castaneda told Axios the department has “no official stance on autonomous vehicles at this time.”
An executive order issued in 2018 by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner introduced the Autonomous Illinois Testing Program to test out AV technology and safety and mandated that a licensed driver always be in the vehicle.
Castaneda said “the department has made no additional steps to act on” that order.
Earlier this year, state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit introduced a bill to require a human operator in AVs, but never got a vote.
“Driving is fairly dangerous, and it’s our role as a state to make it as safe as possible,” Kifowit told Axios. “I firmly believe that there has to be somebody who is there monitoring and making sure the vehicle is being properly operated.”
Although Chicago is not on Waymo’s official expansion list, the company has shown interest in coming here.
