Over the past several months, Waymo’s robot taxis have become a common sight in San Francisco. What was once a limited service operating in the downtown area has now expanded to the general public and can be seen everywhere on the city’s challenging roads. The company, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has also expanded onto California freeways and into Los Angeles.
Waymo now provides over 100,000 rides each week across San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles—a doubling of its ridership since May. During a July earnings call, Alphabet executives announced their plan to invest an additional $5 billion in Waymo. However, a significant question persists: can Waymo’s autonomous vehicles become a profitable venture? Some industry observers also speculate whether Waymo might shift away from managing its own vehicle fleets, and instead focus on selling its technology to other companies.
Waymo’s progression to near-mainstream acceptance is a result of both Alphabet’s substantial investments in its long-term autonomous vehicle project and its patience in developing the tech.
While robot taxi services are not currently profitable, Waymo, alongside other autonomous vehicle companies such as General Motors’ Cruise and Amazon’s Zoox, are competing for a share of a market that analysts estimate could eventually reach a value of $5 trillion.
