Six years into its autonomous-truck program, Waymo has announced a shift in focus towards enhancing its ridesharing service using self-driving cars and minivans. This California-based company, owned by Alphabet, has chosen to prioritize ridesharing due to the incredible progress and substantial market potential it has observed since launching its pilot service in Arizona in 2018, which has now expanded to several other states. Through this program, customers can use an app to summon a Waymo driverless car, similar to booking an Uber.
With this new direction, Waymo will delay its commercial and operational efforts in autonomous trucking, including most technical developments in that area. This decision, explained by Waymo’s co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov in a recent blog post, reflects the company’s intention to concentrate on ride-hailing.
Despite the shift, Waymo will maintain its partnership with Daimler Truck North America to continue advancing the technical development of an autonomous truck platform. The company’s ongoing work on Waymo Driver, the autonomous software and hardware system, will benefit both its ridesharing and reduced trucking initiatives.
Waymo initially tested its hands-free Class 8 big rig in Arizona in 2017 and extended trials to Atlanta, Georgia in 2018. Its collaboration with Daimler began in 2020. Although Mawakana and Dolgov see a promising commercial future for their trucking solution, they believe that focusing intensely on ride-hailing presents more immediate value.
However, for Waymo to launch a widespread ridesharing service, regulators still need assurance of the vehicles’ safety and their ability to manage various situations on public roads effectively.
While Waymo is scaling back on self-driving trucks, other companies like Volvo, TuSimple, and Mitsui continue to develop autonomous technology for larger vehicles.