The company Waymo, belonging to the American technology giant Google, plans to strengthen its dominance in the autonomous taxi market, starting operations in other American cities. The company has not yet disclosed specific cities where it intends to operate in the near future.
"Waymo vehicles are quickly becoming an integral part of everyday life in Austin and Atlanta," emphasized the acting director of Alphabet, which owns Google, Sundar Pichai. At the same time, the CEO of Tesla, the automaker specializing in electric vehicle production, Elon Musk, presented an experimental model of an autonomous electric vehicle aimed at using it as a taxi.
According to the company, Waymo cars, equipped with autonomous driving systems, have completed over 150,000 rides, traveled more than one million kilometers, and transport passengers weekly without a driver behind the wheel. Currently, Waymo operates in the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and ultimately, in Atlanta.
The company plans to begin production of these vehicles in 2026, expecting to release around two million cars annually. Nonetheless, Waymo vehicles have a high cost due to the use of expensive technologies for ensuring safety, including additional sensors such as lidar, scanning the surrounding environment of the vehicle from all sides. This presents a primary challenge for the company in generating income from the production and operation of such vehicles.