But it won’t be offering rides to the paying public yet, as it currently does in four other cities. The company announced Wednesday that it has applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation for its vehicles to operate autonomously with a “trained specialist” behind the wheel in Manhattan.

Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo said on Wednesday its vehicles will be back in New York City next month for autonomous testing, as it continues to scale operations in the U.S. The race to deploy ro