Waymo is loading its autonomous test vehicles on the midnight train to Georgia.
In a Monday tweet, Google's self-driving car affiliate said it has chosen metro Atlanta as the next location to test its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans. Waymo is already testing vehicles with riders on public roads in Chandler, Ariz., and has also been operating riderless tests in California, Washington, Texas and Michigan.
"Metro Atlanta is the next stop for Waymo's test program," the tweet read. "Now that we have the world's first fully self-driving vehicles on public roads in [Arizona], we're looking to take our tech to more cities."
Waymo has been running an autonomous ride-hailing pilot for hand-picked Arizona residents since early last year, and said in November that it would begin to take safety drivers out of the driver's seat within the next few months.
Waymo has been mapping the Atlanta area with a manually driven vehicle, and will begin deploying test vehicles once the city has been charted out.
The move to Atlanta suggests the self-driving technology company is ready to take on higher-traffic situations. The city ranks the ninth most-congested metro area in the world, behind just Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco for the worst traffic in the U.S., according to the Inrix Traffic Scorecard. Waymo has also been testing in San Francisco, along with competitor General Motors' Cruise affiliate.
Waymo is upping the ante on traffic without the added challenge of harsh weather conditions -- which it is currently using tests in Michigan to tackle. Year-round average temperatures in the Atlanta area range from 45.3 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit, and the city sees about 50 inches of rainfall each year, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
