The parent company of Google, Alphabet, plans to provide Waymo, its autonomous driving division, with an additional $5 billion in funding over the next few years. During the company’s quarterly financial results call with investors on Tuesday evening, Alphabet CTO Ruth Porat made the announcement. “This is consistent with enabling Waymo to build the world’s leading self-driving technology,” Porat stated.
For more than ten years, Waymo has been developing technology for driverless vehicles. The Google autonomous vehicle project had its origins in Stanford University’s submissions to the DARPA Grand Challenges in 2005 and 2007. Initially, the Google project made use of modified Lexus SUVs and Toyota Priuses, but the business also had plans to use adorable two-seater pod vehicles without steering wheels.
Waymo was separated from Alphabet in 2016 and became a separate business operating under Alphabet. The pod car, known as Firefly, was discontinued the following year. In its place, Waymo made large orders for completely electric Jaguar I-Paces and hybrid Chrysler Pacifica minivans, outfitting the production vehicles with sensors and hardware for autonomous driving. Additionally, the business is beginning to test its technology with an EV developed by Zeekr, a Geely brand that also includes Polestar and Lynk & Co.
With Austin, Texas, coming up next, Waymo now offers commercial ride-hailing services in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles after largely avoiding the mistakes made by many of its rivals.
Over 50,000 paid Waymo rides occur each week in those four cities, according to Alphabet. It was recently reported that the robotaxi operator is attempting to obtain authorization to begin providing pickups and drops at San Francisco International Airport.
