Large investment comes as Waymo expands further into San Francisco
So much for autonomous vehicle funding drying up. Alphabet GOOG -0.01%↓ announced this week that it will invest $5 billion in its Waymo self-driving car unit.
The funding announcement, which was announced at the company’s second-quarter earnings call, comes as the business unit Waymo belongs to reported $365 million in quarterly revenue. CEO Sundar Pichai said that Waymo completes 50,000 paid rides each week in both San Francisco and Phoenix.
“We are greatful for [Alphabet’s] immense vote of confidence in our team and recognizing the amazing progress we’ve made with our technology, product, and commercialization efforts,” said co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana, who confirmed the huge investment, in an X post.
The announcement comes at around the same time that rival GM’s GM -0.05%↓ Cruise self-driving unit said that they would indefinitely delay the product launch of Origin. The Cruise vehicle is a self-driving shuttle bus.
In addition, Tesla TSLA -1.54%↓ also delayed its August launch of its CyberCab robotaxi to Oct. 10.
