[taoistextremist]

Ford was working on autonomous stuff before Argo though, from what I understand. Argo was bought I think in hopes that they could significantly advance their tech with startup ingenuity. It's a bit disappointing because I think it's a good testing platform to develop these vehicles in Detroit given our variety of weather and road conditions that would be great for applying all of this in non-ideal conditions, but all I ever see in this city are May Mobility shuttles.

I don't think Waymo is really all that much ahead. Their testing is largely still in very ideal areas. Arizona has been attracting firms not just because they passed some permissive laws, but also because it's a place with lots of sunlight and relativity mild weather compared place like the Great Lakes or the Northeast. Same goes for California. Their progress however looks much better because they're really aggressively testing this stuff in ideal real-life conditions, but I think even they are a long way off from deploying those vehicles to places like Michigan year-round (a state that also has allowances for autonomous driving).

[bronco21016]

Waymo can be found on the roads in NW suburbs of Detroit (Novi). Admittedly I did not see them much over the winter. Point is simply that they seem to be testing in the more ‘real-world’ conditions found in the Midwest. I have no idea what the progress is or number of autonomous miles driven but they do have equipment in the field in Michigan.

Hopefully as other companies advance they’ll also move to Michigan as an ideal test bed and bring the crossroads of tech and auto to Michigan.