Alphabet Owned Waymo Focusing On Ride Sharing Service

In a significant strategic shift, Waymo, the autonomous vehicle trailblazer owned by Alphabet, has declared it will halt development on self-driving lorries, choosing instead to reallocate capital and resources towards its autonomous ride-sharing service. The announcement came via a company blog post, marking a turning point for the firm that first piloted a self-driving HGV half a decade ago.

This reorientation is fundamentally a commercial decision, spurred by encouraging signs of growth from the ride-sharing sector. The firm's commitment to 'robotaxis' has been unwavering, serving as the catalyst for its legal confrontation with Uber, which was accused of pilfering confidential data to develop its own autonomous vehicle technology.

Waymo's decision carries particular interest given the current trend among autonomous vehicle start-ups, many of which have pivoted towards logistics and delivery driven by short-term economic considerations.

"Given the tremendous momentum and substantial commercial opportunity we’re observing on the ride-hailing front, we’ve decided to concentrate our efforts and investment on ride-hailing," wrote co-CEOs Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana in their blog. "We're advancing our technology more rapidly than ever by advancing state-of-the-art AI/ML, and seeing substantial business growth and rider demand in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles."

While Waymo has not definitively terminated all autonomous truck development, it will substantially decelerate most technical development in this area. The majority of the trucking team has been redeployed within the company. The partnership with Daimler Truck North America to develop an autonomous trucking platform will continue, albeit at a slower pace, and Waymo will retain redundant chassis required to safely operate an autonomous lorry. Limited truck testing will also persist.

Boris Sofman, co-founder and former CEO of robotics start-up Anki, who joined Waymo to head engineering for the trucking division, will remain with the company. However, collaborations with UPS and J.B. Hunt have concluded, and Waymo is deliberating over the future of the 9-acre trucking hub it established in Dallas, Texas.

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