A Waymo executive reveals how the company is keeping its self-driving taxis safe for riders during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Waymo has ramped up sanitation in its robotaxis during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Daniel Chu, Waymo's chief product officer, told Business Insider he was particularly excited about the ability of the company's vehicles to flush out old air between rides.
• Chu said the coronavirus hasn't changed Waymo's long-term strategy and has only highlighted the benefits of self-driving vehicles.
• Are you a current or former Waymo employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com, on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address mmatousek@protonmail.com.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Waymo has taken a number of steps to promote rider safety, like requiring anyone who cleans its vehicles to wear a mask and submit to a temperature check, stocking vehicles with hand sanitizer, and flushing out old air between rides.

Daniel Chu, Waymo's chief product officer, told Business Insider during its IGNITION: Transportation event on Tuesday that he was particularly excited about the air-replacement feature.

"Between rides, we actually exchange the air," he said.

While the coronavirus has forced Waymo, which was spun off from Google's autonomous-vehicle program in 2016, to scale back its Arizona-based Waymo One robotaxi service for much of this year, the pandemic hasn't changed the company's long-term strategy, Chu said.

"It's only reinforced the benefits of self-driving technology," he said.

Waymo is developing the software and hardware necessary to build a computer "driver" for ride-sharing and delivery vehicles. Chu said focusing on a comprehensive automated-driving system has accelerated the pace at which Waymo can improve its technology.

"It's allowed us to quickly iterate on the product and understand that there are interdependencies amongst these elements," he said.

Waymo is the only company that has launched an autonomous ride-hailing service in the US and is seen by many experts as the autonomous-vehicle industry's leader. It has formed partnerships with Fiat Chrysler, Nissan, Renault, and Volvo.

Are you a current or former Waymo employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com, on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address mmatousek@protonmail.com.

• Read more:
• Tesla says it's finally releasing 'full self-driving' software after it had to 'rewrite everything' — but no one's sure what it can actually do
• Self-driving startup Cruise is launching fully driverless testing in San Francisco this year
• How Cruise, a $19 billion self-driving firm backed by General Motors and SoftBank, trains its cars to have 'super-human' capabilities
• As the hype around robotaxis fades, Waymo, Aurora, and TuSimple are leading the autonomous-vehicle charge into trucking and deliveries