The next time Waymo talks about its fully autonomous management technology, you will not see Alphabet’s subsidiary using the term ‘self-management’. This is because the company wants to distinguish the technology it works on from the semi-autonomous driver assistance systems that are regularly and incorrectly grouped under the label.
“It may seem like a small change, but it’s an important change because precision in language is important and can save lives,” the company said. “Unfortunately, we see that some car manufacturers use the term ‘self-driving’ in an inaccurate way, which gives consumers and the general public a false impression of the capabilities of driver support technology (not fully autonomous) … The merger around standard terminology will not just to avoid misunderstanding and confusion, it will also save lives. In practice, one of the first expressions you will see coming from this change is Waymo’s renamed Public Education Campaign, now known as Let’s Talk Autonomous Driving.