Waymo Getting Ready for Big Growth Spurt – CleanTechnica

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Waymo continues to be out in front as a clear robotaxi leader. Today, the news from the company is that it has raised another $5.6 billion. That will carry the company quite far. Furthermore, the latest financing round was oversubscribed. The investment round was led by Alphabet, and included participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.

Part of this funding will expand the Waymo One ride-hailing partnership with Uber. The Waymo Driver system will also be coming of age and spread out to more businesses. Waymo Driver is an “AI-powered autonomous driving system,” as the company summarizes. Waymo One is Waymo’s overall robotaxi system in commercial operations.

“Customers love Waymo. The company has built the safest product in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem as well as the best,” said Chase Coleman, Founder of Tiger Global. “Their proven experience fostering rider loyalty, securing key partnerships, and collaborating with automotive industry leaders demonstrates their ability to balance ambitious goals with responsible execution, positioning them as the enduring leader in the space.”

“While AI is only just beginning to capture the public imagination, Waymo has been working to bring its endless possibilities to the world of physical transportation for years,” said Egon Durban, Co-CEO, Silver Lake. “The Waymo Driver leads in earning trust by safely actualizing the value and potential of AI through cutting-edge research, practical solutions, and a vastly expanding scope and scale of real world experience.”

That last quote captures well how Waymo’s slow, gradual approach does seem to have put people’s concerns about robotaxis to bed and calmed nerves. I can’t help but read that there’s an implied contrast here to Tesla’s rollout of Full Self Driving, or perhaps it’s a subtle dig at Cruise, which has had to pause operations for several months after an incident with a pedestrian.

With $5.6 billion in extra financing, Waymo can soundly keep doing what it’s doing, but I presume will also look to go on a serious growth spurt. It’s time to start making money with this venture, and the company has a good runway ahead of itself for this now.

Waymo took the opportunity to summarize its recent achievements and role in the industry. “This year has marked incredible commercial progress towards our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver,” the company noted. “We’ve expanded our Waymo One service areas in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, including providing curbside service at Sky Harbor International Airport. Through our expanded partnership with Uber in Austin and Atlanta, we’ll begin to serve riders in those cities in 2025. To create an even more useful experience, we’ve begun fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco. These efforts have enabled us to provide over 100,000 paid weekly trips—a tenfold increase from last year.”

I think Waymo service will increase more than tenfold in the coming year. We shall see.

Related stories:

1. First & Second Waymo Experience Across the City
2. Smooth, Punctual, Easy — 3rd, 4th, & 5th Waymo Experiences
3. Robotaxi from Waymo + Zeekr Makes It To San Francisco
4. New Waymo Driver — Cheaper, Drives in More Weather
5. Waymo Doubles Robotaxi Trips in 3 Months — Is Waymo Finally Scaling Exponentially?
6. Uber & Waymo Expand Partnership to Bring Autonomous Ride-Hailing to Austin & Atlanta
7. Hyundai & Waymo Enter Multi-Year, Strategic Partnership