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Alphabet’s Waymo records 150,000 paid trips and 1 million miles per week

Umito October 30, 2024

A Waymo robotaxi transports passengers in Santa Monica, California.

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Waymo, Alphabet’s robotic taxi unit, now offers more than 150,000 paid rides per week, up more than 50% since August, as the tech giant seeks to stay ahead of its potential competitors in terms of autonomous driving, notably Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the weekly commute figure at the company’s meeting on Tuesday. third quarter earnings call. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company did not say how much revenue Waymo generated in the quarter, although its Other Bets business, which includes the robotaxi service, jumped 31% to $388 million. dollars, probably thanks to the transport company which, according to Pichai, is “the largest”. part” of this portfolio. Other Bets’ operating loss narrowed 6.5% to $1.1 billion over the three-month period.

“Waymo is now a clear technical leader within the autonomous vehicle industry and creates a growing business opportunity,” Pichai said. “Now, every week, Waymo travels more than a million miles autonomously and offers more than 150,000 paid trips, the first time an audiovisual company has achieved this type of consumer use. »

The service’s rapid growth, from 50,000 trips per week at the start of the year to 100,000 per week in August, is due to it carrying more passengers in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles . Barring a major accident, growth is expected to remain dynamic in the coming months with continued expansion in Los Angeles and launch in Austin, Texas and Atlanta. To finance this expansion, Waymo said last week raised an additional $5.6 billionled by Alphabet and venture capitalists.

Musk repositions Tesla to become a major provider of robo-taxi rides despite the fact that his company has not implemented any public autonomous vehicle testing programs or shared detailed information about its system. Tesla’s controversial Autopilot and fully autonomous driving features, for which the company charges customers $15,000, are not technically autonomous because they require a human driver to be ready to take over at any time. Waymo robotaxis operate without a human behind the wheel.

In addition to new liquidity, Waymo is also adding a vehicle production plant in metro Phoenix to install sensors and its computer system in its robotaxis. He also plans to stock up electric vehicles based on Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 model for its growing fleet from next year. Waymo is also moving toward a new, less expensive sensor and computing system, which it says is more powerful than the one currently in use and will help it eventually become profitable.

“It’s an exciting time,” Pichai said. “We obviously remain focused on security, but we are looking to expand and test a variety of models that will help us plan for 2025 and beyond. »

Alphabet shares rose 1.7% to $171.14 on Tuesday on Nasdaq, rising another 5.4% in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.