WAYMO'S SECRET TEST TRACK.. AN
ENTIRE FAKE CITY IN THE CENTRAL
VALLEY, BUILT FOR SELF-DRIVING
CARS.
THE GOOGLE SPINOFF HAS
TRANSFORMED THE FORMER CASTLE
AIR
FORCE BASE IN ATWATER.. INTO A
REAL-WORLD TRAINING GROUND. KPIX
5'S KIET DO, WAS ABLE TO GET A
GLIMPSE INSIDE.
The small town of Atwater,
population 27,000, has a high-
profile neighbor, that was a
secret, up until now.
Waymo, the autonomous vehicle
spin off company from google,
Has built a 91 acre self driving
vehicle test track, the largest
in the country. (Nats)
Waymo officially lifted the veil
of secrecy with this big story
in the Atlantic. The company
couldn't accommodate our request
for a tour on such short notice,
so we came down to the old
Castle Air Force Base to see for
ourselves.
The entire property is
surrounded by a 7-foot fence
with green mesh blocking the
view. But inside, Waymo has
built an entire fake city,
complete with curbs and
sidewalks, stop signs, traffic
lights, A railroad crossing, and
a turnabout.
Here, they can run tests that
would be difficult to do in
Mountain View.
For example, we watched as
engineers put the computer
through its paces over and over
again at this four-way stop
sign. The silver Prius would cut
off the computer, and the
computer slammed the brakes,
avoiding a crash.
we also caught a glimpse of this
minivan covered in red X's.
According to the Atlantic, these
are level 4 autonomous cars,
meant to be driven without a
human inside.
Mark Hendrickson is the director
of economic development for
Merced County. (Mark
Hendrickson, Director of
economic development: we are
very very fortunate and lucky
that Google showed up to castle.
But now we are starting to see
interest from other parties as
well.)
(Kiet standup: as you can see,
there is plenty of room to grow
here at the castle Commerce
center. In fact, Merced County
has some big plans for expansion
to try and attract more
companies down here. They say
the land is cheap, it's only two
hours away from Silicon Valley,
in the counter commute
direction. So for any self
driving car company out there,
and a high-tech company out
there, The county says, come on
down.)
(Hendrickson: we have a
workforce that is growing and
becoming more educated. We have,
again, a lower cost of living.
We've got ample space from which
to grow. We don't some of the
land use constraints they're
experiencing in other regions of
the state. So again, from a
Valleywide perspective, we
believe were very well poised to
meet the needs of industry in
the future.)
In Atwater, Kiet Do KPIX 5.
A MAJOR LEGAL RULING CLEARS THE
WAY FOR EXECUTIONS TO
