Alphabet will be spending an extra $5 billion on its self-driving company Waymo.
The parent company of Google has committed to a new ‘multi-year investment’ which was announced by chief officer Ruth Porat during a second-quarter earnings call.
“This new round of funding, which is consistent with recent annual investment levels, will enable Waymo to continue to build the world’s leading autonomous driving technology company.”
The California-based Waymo was formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project and is referred to as the world’s first autonomous ride-hailing service.
The Co-CEO Tekedra N Mawakana took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the news and her gratitude, writing: “Alphabet has committed up to $5B to Waymo.
“We are grateful for their immense vote of confidence in our team and recognizing the amazing progress we’ve made with our technology, product, and commercialization efforts.”
Alphabet has committed up to $5B to @Waymo. We are grateful for their immense vote of confidence in our team and recognizing the amazing progress we’ve made with our technology, product, and commercialization efforts.
— Tekedra N Mawakana (@TechTekedra) July 23, 2024
Porat also said Google will be focusing on improving overall efficiencies in its ‘other bets’ segment. This segment includes Google Ventures, the drone company Wing, the research organization Verily, and the biotechnology company Calico.
“Waymo is an important example of this, with its technical leadership coupled with progress on operational performance,” said the executive.
On the call, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly said how the company is now delivering well over 50,000 paid rides per week. This number was also noted in Waymo’s announcement blog post about expanding in San Francisco.
It isn’t yet known how the $5 billion will be spent, but Alphabet’s 10-Q form could have more details when this is officially filed.
What is Waymo?
Waymo is a vehicle service where people can order a car to take them to their destination and it will do so without anyone in the driver’s seat.
While the company was founded in 2009, the technology hasn’t yet expanded to all areas of the U.S., but upcoming projects and goals could point to the Waymo Driver becoming more commonplace throughout the country.
Currently, the driver has been tested across 13 states and San Francisco is the latest place to be able to access fully autonomous rides.
Before operating in a new area, each city and town has to be mapped out with extreme detail. This includes lane markers, stop signs, curbs, crosswalks, and more.
The driver then uses all data, including the custom maps and real-time sensor information, to determine its exact road location.
When looking at the amount of rides taken across major urban areas, over the last six years, the company writes that the Waymo Driver “avoids high-severity collisions better than even the most attentive human drivers.”
They go on to say how data shows that “we have fewer insurance claims and injuries or police reports than human drivers.”
Featured Image: Via Waymo’s X Account
