The large winter storm blanketing a lot of the continental U.S. this weekend is a disaster for some and a possibility for others.
If you’re one of many lucky individuals who haven’t got to go away the home this weekend, then a winter storm is a good alternative to curve up with family members — two-legged companions, four-legged furry companions, or each — and watch a “Rocky” marathon (or different marathon of your alternative).
However if you’re a type of unlucky individuals who have to go away the home for work, errands, or no matter cause, then the storm might current a disaster.
Traversing ice and snow-covered roads is rarely an interesting possibility. Even with the perfect snow tires, the best clearance, and probably the most highly effective AWD engine doable, the street is just as secure as your fellow vacationers make it. So autos with out these bells and whistles are potential risks for which you’ll be able to’t account.
Greatest passenger automobiles for snow driving
- Ford Bronco Sports activities
- Chevrolet Tahoe 4WD
- Jeep Grand Cherokee
- Audi A5 Sportback
- BMW 3 Collection xDrive
- Cadillac CT4 AWD
Supply: Kelley Blue E book
Drivers in New England and the northeast are used to these kind of storms. Nonetheless, main metropolitan areas in southern states like Atlanta and Dallas, which have already got notoriously unhealthy site visitors, are likely to battle with dealing with slick winter climate.
Trip-hailing providers might be essential for some unlucky vacationers this weekend, and Waymo, an automatic service, desires folks within the Dallas-Fort Price metro space to know that their service is secure.
Trip-hailing providers could also be an possibility for vacationers going through main winter climate.
Photograph by Anadolu on Getty Pictures
Waymo says its autos are prepared for weekend winter storm
This week, the Nationwide Climate Service issued a winter storm look ahead to Dallas-Fort Price, Texas, a metro space with greater than 8.3 million folks.
The NWS expects chilly rain on Friday, Jan. 23, to transition into freezing rain and sleet on Friday night time and Saturday, then largely sleet and a bit snow for the remainder of the weekend by means of Monday, Jan. 26.
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Whereas Waymo isn’t but accessible to the general public in Dallas, the autos have been noticed everywhere in the metro space, transporting Waymo staff as the corporate gears up for its launch to the broader public within the coming months.
And whereas there have been a few high-profile mishaps involving Waymo autos that brought about site visitors points just lately, the corporate says its autos are ready for what’s coming this weekend and will not pose an obstacle to Texas drivers.
Waymo Driver can function in a “range of conditions” together with freezing temperatures, fog, rain, and hail, the corporate informed The Dallas Morning Information.
“Through a combination of closed-course testing and public road driving with autonomous specialists, we are expanding our capabilities for safe operation in freezing conditions as we introduce our next-generation Waymo Driver,” Waymo stated in an announcement to the newspaper.
Waymo at the moment doesn’t function in any cold-weather cities, nevertheless it has been testing in chilly cities in anticipation of debuting in Denver, Detroit, and different locations within the coming months.
Waymo has been getting ready to develop to cold-weather cities
As of 2026, Waymo is accessible 24/7 to the general public in Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Space, and Los Angeles, and the corporate is increasing its ride-hailing service to Miami and Washington, D.C., subsequent.
Waymo companions with Uber in Austin and Atlanta, and it has additionally introduced plans to develop to greater than a handful of recent cities within the close to future, together with abroad cities comparable to London.
Waymo fast details:
- Waymo One is accessible 24/7 to prospects in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Space, as of July 2025
- Based in 2009
- Handed the primary U.S. state self-driving check in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2012 (Supply:IEEE Spectrum)
- Spun out from Alphabet as a separate subsidiary in 2016
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Final fall, Waymo introduced it might start test-driving its fleet of Jaguar I-PACE autos in Denver. And whereas coaching in Denver, the corporate stated, “Our next-generation system is knowledgeable by years of winter climate expertise throughout Michigan, upstate New York, and the Sierra Nevada and engineered to autonomously maintain operations in harsher climates.”
The company is also expanding to Seattle, a city Waymo says has been one of the “early leaders in autonomous vehicle testing.”
Waymo says it has spent years canvassing the area due to its unique weather and layout, and that data has informed its tech as it operates in other cities.
City dwellers have not been kind to Waymo or other autonomous companies
Urban centers have large clusters of college-educated citizens, so one would think that cities embrace forward-looking tech like autonomous driving with open arms.
However, this could not be further from the truth.
Advocacy groups are making their voices heard in New York City, where Waymo recently received permission to conduct tests.
“From a safety perspective, this is a technology that hasn’t been tested out in incredibly dense cities like New York City,” Michael Sutherland, a coverage researcher with Open Plans, informed Gothamist.
Practically 80% of California voters assist requiring a human security operator in self-driving vans and supply autos, and simply 33% of voters specific a positive normal impression of autonomous autos.
Waymo says in comparison with these with human drivers, its autonomous autos have been concerned in 88% fewer crashes with severe accidents.
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