Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous driving subsidiary, announced Friday it has completed a $5.6 billion funding round spearheaded by its parent company, Alphabet, as the company aims to expand its self-driving ride-hailing service. The funding round included contributions from existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.
“With this latest investment, we will continue to welcome more riders into our Waymo One ride-hailing service in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and in Austin and Atlanta through our expanded partnership with Uber,” Waymo stated.
Alphabet’s finance chief Ruth Porat mentioned in July that the tech giant was planning a $5 billion investment in Waymo over multiple years. Waymo operates paid autonomous vehicle services in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, logging millions of test miles before receiving its first permit in 2022 from the California Public Utilities Commission.
In the competitive autonomous vehicle space, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced plans to launch driverless ride-hailing services in California and Texas by next year. Meanwhile, General Motors’ Cruise unit is testing cars with safety drivers after temporarily halting operations following a 2022 accident, and Amazon’s Zoox is expanding its testing of vehicles without traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals.
