Waymo raises $2.25 billion to scale up autonomous vehicles operations

#News(General) [ via IoTGroup ]

Headings…
Waymo raises $2.25 billion to scale up autonomous vehicles operations
Robo-taxi growth
Self-driving trucks

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With this injection of capital and business acumen, alongside Alphabet, we’ll deepen our investment in our people, our technology, and our operations, all in support of the deployment of the Waymo Driver around the world.”
The company’s annual cost is estimated at around $1 billion, while its robo-taxi business — Waymo One — reportedly yields just hundreds of thousand dollars a year in revenue.
“Waymo is the proven leader in self-driving technology, is the only autonomous vehicle company with a public ride-hailing service, and is successfully scaling its fully driverless experience,” said Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban in a statement.
Shortly after announcing a partnership with Lyft to deploy 10 cars on the ride-hailing platform in Phoenix, Waymo revealed that a portion of its self-driving taxis no longer have a safety driver behind the wheel.
Later this year, Waymo also plans to release its latest autonomous driving system — the fifth-generation Waymo Driver — featuring a new lidar sensor design that’s “breakthrough” in terms of cost-efficiency.
Assuming Waymo maintains its current trajectory, investment bank UBS believes the company will dominate the driverless car market in the next decade, with over 60% market share.
In what might be perceived as a bid to boost its bottom line, Waymo recently announced it would begin testing self-driving trucks on “promising” commercial routes in the two U.S. states.
Chrysler Pacifica vans retrofitted with Waymo’s technology stack will map roads ahead of driverless Peterbilt trucks as part of a project known as Waymo Via. Waymo describes Waymo Via — which was formally announced today — as focused on “all forms of goods delivery.” It encompasses both short- and long-haul delivery, from freight transported across interstates down to local delivery

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