Texas Monthly - Over the last few years, Waymo—the self-driving technology company that’s part of Alphabet, the Google parent company—has launched fleets of autonomous big rigs and minivans in California, Arizona, and Georgia. Last week, the company revealed plans for a vast new territorial expansion into Texas and New Mexico. Eager to identify promising commercial routes, Waymo says it’s been lured to Texas because of the state’s high freight volume, according to a statement provided by the company.
"The Department of Public Safety will tell you distracted drivers are the biggest killer of drivers on our highways today and—once you deploy this technology that takes error out of human hands—you'll start seeing some real change," said Esparza, who served as a policy adviser to Governor Rick Perry and was later appointed to the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents by Perry. He also said that an experienced truck driver with a clean driving record is a "hot commodity."