Football fans heading to the US for next year’s World Cup will be transported to matches in driverless taxis. Fleets of the AI-controlled white, all-electric Jaguar SUVs, inset, costing more than £90,000 each, will chauffeur fans to venues in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Atlanta, where group and key knockout stage games will be played.
More than 1,500 robotaxis are already on the road in several cities, where they are completing more than a 250,000 paid rides
each week. California-based auto tech giant Waymo – which is owned by Alphabet – is expanding fast across the US and will be operating in at least four World Cup host cities, a spokesman confirmed.
He added that they will not be available for a much smaller number of games also being played at two host cities in Canada and three in Mexico, although Waymo does have plans to expand globally. Fans with safety fears about robo-taxis can take comfort from a survey earlier this year that revealed Waymo vehicles in LA and San Francisco were involved in 85% fewer crashes with serious injuries than human drivers.
Tekedra Mawakana, the firm’s co-CEO, vowed: “Expectations of safe mobility options are going to be completely transformed.”