One of the pioneers of autonomous ride-hailing services, Waymo, recently announced that it is revamping its efforts and focusing on its core business of the present. Waymo One has been massive in the country over the past years, with its autonomous ride-hailing services testing on different major cities, now its top priority to grow claims Alphabet.
Waymo is also known for its commercial trucking with autonomous driving capabilities, but this gets a temporary setback for its development as it intends to make its passenger services the focus.
Waymo One, the Ride-Hailing Service, is Now the Top Priority
(Photo : Waymo)
Alphabet's Waypoint announced earlier its massive shift in the business, with the company seeing significant growth in the ride-hailing business, now making Waymo One the top priority to expand.
"Given the tremendous momentum and substantial commercial opportunity we're seeing on the ride-hailing front, we've made the decision to focus our efforts and investment on ride-hailing," said Waymo CEOs Tekedra Mawakana & Dmitri Dolgov. "We're iterating more quickly than ever on our technology by pushing forward state of the art AI/ML, and seeing significant business growth and rider demand in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles."
San Fransisco sees late-stage testing from the company, while Phoenix is already charging fees for its rides, and Los Angeles recently began its early testing phase.
Read Also: Uber and Waymo Collaborates to Bring Ride-Hailing and Self-Driving Cars Under One Service
Alphabet's Waymo Trucking, Other Ventures Set Aside
That being said, Waymo's other venture, the commercial and operational efforts on trucking with Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), is set aside for the time being.
According to 9to5 Google, it is not necessarily shutting down but is given a low priority as Waymo is focused on the ride-hailing service for now.
Still, Waymo claimed that it will continue its collaboration for its current trucking ventures with DTNA and soon bring its developments.
Waymo One's Massive Expansion in the US
Back in 2021, Alphabet, Google's parent company, secured its license to operate its pilot program in San Fransisco, California, marking the first driverless ride-hailing service in the country. Its goal is to test its capabilities and completely map the Golden City to make its system adept at every turn and road, initially a free experience.
Amidst its massive expansion in New York and Metro Phoenix, the company fully committed to using only electric vehicles for all its ventures and replacing its existing fleet. Waymo first use only a handful of Jaguar's I-PACE EVs on its initial run, but earlier this March, the company pledged that it is pushing for an all-electric fleet moving forward.
The massive expansion of Waymo pushed to take public transportation to the next level, with the commute being more private to one's booking, with its main focus being driverless. Now, the company is putting everything on the line for Waymo One in a bid to expand more of the robotaxi business, but not necessarily shutting down its other ventures including its trucking.
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