3:43 PM PT
Autonomous rideshare startup Waymo has announced an additional $2.5 billion investment round of funding. Waymo plans to use the additional funding, led by parent company Alphabet Inc., to hire more staff and advance its self-driving technology toward more paid rides.
Waymo was launched in 2009 by Google’s parent company Alphabet, Inc., as a self-driving car project. In 2016, the Google project was officially renamed Waymo, derived from “a new way forward in mobility.” Since then, Waymo has tested its various self-driving vehicles in several states. Furthermore, it has been charging driverless rides for people in Chandler, Arizona, since 2019, apart from a slight halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most recently, Waymo has been gearing up for paid rides in San Francisco, pending permit approval from both the California DMV, as well as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). In its application, Waymo stated it has logged over 83,000 autonomous miles in the San Francisco area, although its total autonomous miles logged are much higher.
With today’s funding announcement, Waymo appears positioned to begin charging for rides (and actually gather some income) pending the application approvals in California.
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