Latest news with #WaymoDriver
The Verge
27-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Verge
Posted May 27, 2025 at 1:24 PM EDT
Waymo identifies three new cities for robotaxi testing. The Alphabet-owned company is planning to set its vehicles loose in Houston, Orlando, and San Antonio as part of its 2025 'road trip.' The vehicles will be manually driven, and the testing operations are not necessarily a precursor to the launch of a commercial robotaxi service — nor is Waymo precluded from launching a service, either. The company sees it as an opportunity to see how well its self-driving system adapts to new locales with varying weather conditions and regional driving habits. Waymo previously said it was testing its vehicles in Las Vegas, Miami, and Japan. We're officially more than halfway through our 2025 road trip! 🛣️ The Waymo Driver is learning and rolling. Where do you think we're heading next? — Waymo (@Waymo) May 27, 2025
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Waymo Claims to have Doubled its Robotaxi Trips in Five Months, Reaching 10 Million
Waymo, the autonomous ride-hailing business owned by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), accomplished 10 million paid robotaxi trips, co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana revealed at the Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. The significant achievement doubles the total number of trips in just five months and includes rides in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Phoenix area. Mawakana stated: 'These are all paid trips, and they represent people who are really integrating Waymo Driver into their everyday lives,' A user's hands typing a search query into a Google Search box, emphasizing the company's search capabilities. According to Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s April earnings report, Waymo is currently providing more than 250,000 paid rides every week. This week, the company also got regulatory authority to extend its services to San Jose and other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. The "Other Bets" division of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which includes Waymo, reported $450 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2025, a 9% year-over-year drop, while operating losses grew to $1.23 billion from $1.02 billion. "We're proving out that it can be a profitable business," Mawakana added, even though Waymo is not yet profitable. The company is super focused on building a sustainable business. Waymo prioritizes safety over rival Tesla's planned robotaxi launch. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, announced that the service will debut in Austin the following month with a fleet of ten vehicles. Tesla aims to quickly expand to San Francisco and Los Angeles if it is successful. Unlike Waymo, Tesla's system is reliant on cameras rather than lidar or radar. 'There's probably a lot of ways it can be done, but we're the only ones that have done it,' she said. 'We've been doing it 24 hours a day for almost five years. And so to us, it's really important to focus on safety, not focus on safety and then cost — not cost and then safety.' While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this READ NEXT: Nike Restructures the Technology Division, Laying Off Some Employees and Alphabet's Waymo has Secured Approval to Expand its Driverless Ride-Hailing Service to San Jose.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Waymo Claims to have Doubled its Robotaxi Trips in Five Months, Reaching 10 Million
Waymo, the autonomous ride-hailing business owned by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), accomplished 10 million paid robotaxi trips, co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana revealed at the Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. The significant achievement doubles the total number of trips in just five months and includes rides in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Phoenix area. Mawakana stated: 'These are all paid trips, and they represent people who are really integrating Waymo Driver into their everyday lives,' A user's hands typing a search query into a Google Search box, emphasizing the company's search capabilities. According to Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s April earnings report, Waymo is currently providing more than 250,000 paid rides every week. This week, the company also got regulatory authority to extend its services to San Jose and other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. The "Other Bets" division of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which includes Waymo, reported $450 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2025, a 9% year-over-year drop, while operating losses grew to $1.23 billion from $1.02 billion. "We're proving out that it can be a profitable business," Mawakana added, even though Waymo is not yet profitable. The company is super focused on building a sustainable business. Waymo prioritizes safety over rival Tesla's planned robotaxi launch. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, announced that the service will debut in Austin the following month with a fleet of ten vehicles. Tesla aims to quickly expand to San Francisco and Los Angeles if it is successful. Unlike Waymo, Tesla's system is reliant on cameras rather than lidar or radar. 'There's probably a lot of ways it can be done, but we're the only ones that have done it,' she said. 'We've been doing it 24 hours a day for almost five years. And so to us, it's really important to focus on safety, not focus on safety and then cost — not cost and then safety.' While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this READ NEXT: Nike Restructures the Technology Division, Laying Off Some Employees and Alphabet's Waymo has Secured Approval to Expand its Driverless Ride-Hailing Service to San Jose.
CNBC
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- CNBC
Waymo says it reached 10 million robotaxi trips, doubling in five months
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told CNBC on Tuesday that the Alphabet-owned ride-hailing company has reached 10 million trips, doubling in the past five months. "These are all paid trips, and they represent people who are really integrating Waymo Driver into their everyday lives," said Mawakana, speaking at the Google I/O developer conference. The 10 million figure includes rides in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Phoenix area. Waymo is delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides a week, Alphabet said in its April earnings report. On Monday, Waymo said it had won approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose. The robotaxi company is part of Alphabet's "Other Bets" unit. Revenue in the overall category fell 9% in the first quarter from a year earlier to $450 million, and operating loss grew from to $1.23 billion from $1.02 billion a year ago. While those figures include a number of businesses, Mawakana confirmed that Waymo is not yet profitable but that the company is "super focused on building a sustainable business." "We're proving out that it can be a profitable business," she said. "There's a path to profitability." Waymo faces potential competition from Tesla, which has promised to launch its robotaxi service in Austin next month. Tesla CEO Elon Musk told CNBC on Tuesday that the plan was still on track, and that the company will start with about 10 vehicles and rapidly expand to thousands if the debut goes well with no incidents. Musk said Tesla aims to bring its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco following the planned Austin launch. He has previously claimed Tesla's "generalized" approach to robotaxis is more ambitious than Waymo's. Tesla primarily relies on camera-based systems and computer vision instead of using sophisticated sensors including lidar and radar in its vehicles. Mawakana said that Waymo has taken what it views as the "safest path." "There's probably a lot of ways it can be done, but we're the only ones that have done it," she said. "We've been doing it 24 hours a day for almost five years. And so to us, it's really important to focus on safety, not focus on safety and then cost — not cost and then safety."
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Waymo, Magna to jointly build robotaxis at new Arizona factory
This story was originally published on Automotive Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Automotive Dive newsletter. Autonomous driving technology developer Waymo is partnering with Tier 1 automotive supplier Magna International to jointly build robotaxis at a new 239,000-square-foot facility in the Metro Phoenix area, the company announced in a May 5 blog post. The factory is a multi-million dollar investment and will create hundreds of jobs in Mesa, Arizona, that support Waymo's plans to scale its commercial Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing service to additional U.S. cities. Through next year, the two companies aim to outfit 2,000 additional Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs with the 'Waymo Driver' autonomous driving technology stack in Arizona for use in Waymo's ride-hailing service. But the facility will be capable of building 'tens of thousands' of robotaxis a year once fully operational, according to the release. Waymo said its Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing service has grown significantly over the past several years, creating demand for additional vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology in order to scale the commercial mobility service to additional U.S. cities. Waymo operates roughly 1,500 vehicles across Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area and currently provides over 250,000 paid trips per week in its driverless robotaxis, according to the release. The next planned launch cities for Waymo One include Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C. The new Arizona facility will allow Waymo and Magna to install AV hardware on multiple vehicle platforms simultaneously — and at higher volumes. Among the equipment being installed at the plant is an automated assembly line. In an email to Automotive Dive, Waymo Product Communications Manager Chris Bonelli said the company has a contract manufacturing partnership with Magna, which leases the building. The robotaxi build process includes sub-assembly of the Waymo Driver components and general assembly to integrate them into the Jaguar I-PACE SUVs, according to Bonelli. Once installed, Waymo drives the vehicles manually to validate the hardware and software before commissioning it for use by Waymo One. 'We have a series of hardware and software checks in place to be sure all components are working as intended,' Bonelli said. In the blog, Waymo said it has implemented new processes at the Arizona facility that significantly reduce the time and cost required to certify its autonomous vehicles to carry riders. Vehicles assigned to Waymo's Phoenix fleet can drive autonomously out of the facility and directly into service in less than 30 minutes after leaving the factory. For Waymo One vehicles destined for ride-hailing service in other cities, they can be deployed within hours after being shipped to a local depot, according to Waymo. 'The Waymo Driver integration plant in Mesa is the epicenter of our future growth plans,' said Ryan McNamara, Waymo VP of operations, in the release. 'With our partners at Magna, we've opened a manufacturing site that enables the cost efficiency, flexibility, and capacity to scale our fleet to new heights.' Waymo uses a fleet of modified Jaguar I-PACE vehicles for its Waymo One ride-hailing service, but the company plans to add Zeekr RT passenger vans from China-based electric vehicle brand Zeekr. The EV will also be outfitted with the Waymo Driver in Arizona. Zeekr is majority owned by automaker Geely, one of China's biggest OEMs and the parent company of Volvo Cars. Although tariffs on imported vehicles could impact the cost of the Zeekr RT, Bonelli said Waymo is 'monitoring the dynamic tariff situation closely' and will continue to test the EV on public roads as planned. Waymo's collaboration with Magna follows a similar partnership announced on April 30 with Toyota Motor Corp. Waymo and Toyota plan to collaborate on the development of an autonomous vehicle platform and explore ways to integrate Waymo's technology into personally owned Toyota vehicles. Recommended Reading Toyota, Waymo to collaborate on autonomous driving platform Sign in to access your portfolio
