No robotaxis for Rochester—yet

On a gray day in November 2025, when Rochester roads were slick and the lawns still coated with early winter snow, something new rolled down the avenues. The spinning LiDAR receptor on the roof, plus more on the fenders, were bouncing millions of laser beams off surrounding objects. Multiple cameras plus radars fed into an onboard computer digesting and verifying all this location information and commanding the vehicle to drive down the street (although there was a human stand-by driver onboard for this run). The sight was odd enough for WROC to report it on the news. This Waymo self-driving taxi (robotaxi) was headed for Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva for an exhibit arranged by state Sen. Jeremy Cooney (for his alma mater). Waymo is a division of Alphabet, the company formerly called Google. At that time, there was hope that Rochester would soon be one of the upstate cities Gov.

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