Waymo offers driverless taxis to the public for the first time

Google's driverless car unit will launch in Phoenix over the coming weeks

Credit: Waymo/Waymo

The company added that all of its vehicles would be fully driverless “in the near term”.

During a conference call Waymo chief executive John Krafcik did not reveal when the company would expand beyond Phoenix, but said he would “love” to bring it to California.

In December, the Alphabet-owned firm snapped up UK start-up Latent Logic as part of its plans to launch its first European research hub in Oxford.

Latent, set up by Oxford academics, builds highly-realistic simulations of roads and cars that can be used to train AI software for driverless vehicles.

Earlier this year, Waymo raised more than $3bn (£2.28bn), largely from outside investors. The launch of the driverless service has allowed it to get a jump on  rivals, who have yet to offer the service to the public.

Both Amazon and Uber have also invested heavily in automated vehicles, however the latter was hit with a set back by a fatal accident that involved a test vehicle in 2018.