Alphabet’s Waymo to offer self-driving rides in Silicon Valley

By Julia Love | Bloomberg

Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car firm, Waymo, said it will begin transporting passengers in a handful of cities near its Mountain View, California, headquarters.

Waymo said it will be offering rides to a select group of residents before expanding to more riders in a 27-square-mile swath of Silicon Valley that includes Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and parts of Sunnyvale. The company added that it now delivers more than 200,000 paid rides per week to customers in its existing markets, including San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“Opening our fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Silicon Valley marks a special milestone in our Bay Area journey,” Waymo’s chief product officer, Saswat Panigrahi, said in a statement Tuesday. “This is where Waymo began and where we’re headquartered. Now we’re bringing seamless rides, safer streets, and sustainable transportation to our local community.”

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Alphabet has been aggressively expanding Waymo, with plans to test in 10 new cities this year. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s latest earnings call that Waymo is working on new version of its driving technology that will trim hardware costs. The unit is part of its “other bets” division, a collection of futuristic businesses that generated $400 million in fourth-quarter revenue.

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