Waymo, the American autonomous car specialist, is now valued at $45 billion. Here are 11 things to know about the company which has now established itself as the world leader in robotaxis.
Google’s sister
The creation of Waymo dates back to 2009. At the time, it was a Google project to develop an autonomous car. Its first major breakthrough dates from 2015, when the division proposed “ the first fully driverless driving on public roads “.
A year later, it became a separate company under the umbrella of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. It was at this time that it adopted its official name, Waymo, and became an independent entity. In 2017, it began testing its first autonomous vehicles.
A dispute with Uber
In 2017, Waymo filed a lawsuit against Uber, alleging the theft of trade secrets related to its self-driving technology. A move that led to a highly publicized legal battle between the two companies. They reached an agreement the following year, with Uber agreeing to pay Waymo $245 million.
An autonomous taxi service present in three major American cities
The company launched Waymo One, its autonomous taxi service, in 2018. First in Phoenix, Arizona, then in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California a few years later.
Initially, safety drivers were always present behind the wheel, but this is no longer the case today. However, vehicles are only allowed to operate in limited areas, at certain times of the day and in optimal weather conditions. However, these methods are constantly evolving as technology improves.
A privileged partnership with Uber
The relationship between Uber and Waymo has taken an unexpected turn. In 2023, the two companies announced a strategic partnership, making Waymo’s autonomous vehicles available through the Uber app in cities where the service is permitted.
100,000 weekly shopping trips
This collaboration marked a major turning point in the autonomous driving sector, allowing Waymo to reach a much larger number of users.
In August, the company announced that it was now completing 100,000 trips per week, double the number of trips made just months earlier in May and 10 times more than the same period last year.
Waymo reigns supreme in the autonomous taxi industry. If it was once contested by Cruise, the latter drastically slowed down its efforts after being involved in a serious accident.
Waymo has been involved in accidents
Waymo’s journey has not been a smooth ride, however. Its vehicles have also been involved in numerous incidents over the years. In July 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency responsible for road safety, had recorded 150 accidents involving the firm’s cars.
It has since optimized its technology: in 2023, Waymo reported only 3 accidents out of 11 million kilometers traveled. It claims to be almost twice as safe as human drivers. According to available data, the accidents observed have never resulted in death or serious injuries.
Efforts in heavyweights
Waymo also tried to interfere in road transport via a unit called Waymo Via. Its ambition was to create autonomous driving solutions for the truck and logistics sector, culminating in a partnership with Uber Freight in 2022.
The company, however, decided to slow down its efforts in this area a year later, favoring the robotaxis sector due to a “ tremendous momentum and substantial business opportunities “.
Waymo raised $11.1 billion in total
Although autonomous driving is a sector that can put off investors, Waymo has been able to attract them. At the end of October, the company raised a record $5.6 billion, bringing its total funds raised to $11.1 billion.
In addition to Alphabet, venture capital big names like Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake and T. Rowe Price were there.
In search of profitability
Despite its impressive growth, Waymo is not yet profitable. In the third quarter, Alphabet’s Other Bets division, which includes the autonomous driving business, posted a loss of $1.1 billion, on revenue of $388 million. This is still better than the 297 million dollars collected over the same period of the previous year.
In the case of autonomous driving, the technology giant’s approach is long-term. He believes that robotaxis will grow more and more over the years, allowing him to significantly increase his number of users and therefore his revenues.
Upcoming deployment in several additional cities
With this in mind, Waymo will expand its partnership with Uber to deploy its autonomous taxi service in two additional American cities in 2025: Austin and Atlanta.
Criticism of Tesla
In 2021, Waymo published a blog post sharply criticizing Elon Musk’s company. The reason: the use of the expression “ Full Self-Driving » to name its driving assistance mode.
According to Waymo, this term “ misleading ” given ” consumers and the general public a false impression of the capabilities of driver assistance technology (which is not fully autonomous) “. The company believed it would encourage some drivers to take risks, affecting the entire industry. Ultimately, Tesla’s ambition is of course to make Full Self-Driving fully autonomous, but this vision still remains far from reality.
