Self-driving taxis are about to reach a milestone moment! From Phoenix to Fifth Avenue: Waymo is getting ready to enter the "world's capital" New York.

Alphabet Inc. Class C's subsidiary Waymo, which specializes in fully autonomous driving, has received the first batch of autonomous taxis in New York City, the "super metropolis" of the United States. These taxis, with a human safety driver on board, have begun collecting city mapping and high-precision map data. Waymo is currently seeking permission to test autonomous taxis in New York City. The data collected during manual testing with human drivers will help train the company's AI supercomputing system focused on fully autonomous driving. For the fully autonomous driving taxi sector dominated by Waymo and Tesla, Inc. Robotaxi, achieving the testing of autonomous taxis in New York with human safety supervisors after data collection would be a milestone progress in the field. This also means that fully autonomous taxis without human supervision may soon officially enter this "world capital" super market. Alphabet Inc. Class C's autonomous driving subsidiary plans to collect data while vehicles are driven manually by human drivers in New York City as a first step towards entering one of the largest ridesharing markets in the United States. Previously, in June, Waymo applied to the New York City Department of Transportation for a permit to test autonomous driving on roads. If approved, the plan is to first conduct autonomous driving tests with a human safety monitor in the vehicle, then progress to testing with human safety detectors installed, and ultimately expand to testing fully autonomous taxis without the need for human supervisors. This move highlights Waymo's efforts to accelerate towards more major U.S. cities in the face of competition from autonomous taxi rivals like Tesla, Inc. Compared to Musk-led Tesla, Inc., which currently only tests Robotaxi autonomous taxis based on the Tesla, Inc. FSD (Full Self Driving) system on a small scale in Austin, Texas, Waymo currently operates fully autonomous taxis without human drivers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin, in a paid mode. It is understood that New York state law requires vehicles using autonomous driving technology to be equipped with drivers, meaning that Waymo cannot offer fully autonomous taxi services without human drivers in New York City under the current legal framework. However, a Waymo spokesperson stated that the company is advocating for changes to the state's laws, which means that in Waymo's view, the super metropolis of New York City may also offer fully autonomous taxi services without human drivers in the future. Waymo's progress in the field of autonomous driving far surpasses that of Tesla, Inc. Compared to Musk's ambitious plans, Waymo's advancements in fully autonomous driving... (Note: The text exceeds the character limit. Please let me know if you would like me to continue with the translation.)