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Waymo said Oct. 8 that it is opening its fully driverless ride-hailing service in suburban Phoenix to the public.

Waymo launched testing of autonomous trucks in Texas and announced plans to make Dallas the center of its heavy-duty vehicle technology efforts.

Autonomous driving engineer Anthony Levandowski was ordered to spend 18 months in prison for stealing trade secrets from Google as he defected to Uber Technologies Inc., in one of the highest-profile criminal cases to hit Silicon Valley.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Google affiliate Waymo said July 22 they are extending their partnership in the development and testing of autonomous vehicles for commercial delivery and for future FCA products.

As it moves forward with autonomous truck development, Waymo plans to focus its 2020 testing efforts on the southwest shipping corridor that includes Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Waymo is pausing most operations in Arizona and California in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the company announced March 17.

Waymo raised $2.25 billion from a slate of private equity investors, venture capitalists and automotive companies, the first time Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous vehicle unit has taken outside funds.

UPS and Waymo announced Jan. 29 a pilot program for autonomous vehicle package pickup in Phoenix.

Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo took a big step forward last fall when it began ferrying riders around the Phoenix area in robotaxis without human safety drivers. Humans have been behind the wheel for almost all of the 20 million miles of testing the company says it has completed on public roads.

PHOENIX — Google spinoff Waymo is trying to educate emergency responders on how to deal with its autonomous vehicles.