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Company

Waymo

Alphabet's autonomous-driving subsidiary and the most commercially advanced robotaxi operator in the world.

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Founded
2009
HQ
Mountain View, California, USA
Status
Alphabet subsidiary
Funding
$27.0B
Models
3
Deployments
11
Patents
4

Verified profile

  • 14

    Sources on record

  • 1

    Tracked changes

  • Updated 1 month ago

    Last verified change

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Overview

Alphabet's autonomous-driving subsidiary and the most commercially advanced robotaxi operator in the world. Originally the Google Self-Driving Car Project (2009), spun out as Waymo in 2016, it operates the Waymo One ride-hailing service across roughly 11 U.S. metropolitan markets using its sixth-generation Waymo Driver (on Jaguar I-PACE vehicles). Scale: Waymo provides approximately 500,000 paid rides per week (up from ~250,000 a year earlier) and is targeting 1 million weekly rides by the end of 2026. It completed about 15 million rides in 2025 (tripling year-over-year) and has surpassed 20 million lifetime rides, across 127+ million miles of fully autonomous driving. Financials: In February 2026 Waymo closed a $16 billion Series D round at a $126 billion post-money valuation, the largest autonomous-vehicle funding round on record, more than double its $45B October-2024 valuation, bringing total funding raised to roughly $27 billion. Alphabet funds the majority; the round drew Sequoia, Dragoneer, DST Global, a16z, Mubadala, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price and others. Annual recurring revenue reportedly exceeded $350 million in 2025 (~$15-20 average fare). Safety positioning (Waymo's own claims): Waymo states its driver is 'statistically superior to human driving,' citing a 90% reduction in serious-injury crashes across 127 million autonomous miles. These are company-stated figures. Accountability / scrutiny: Despite that positioning, rapid expansion has produced regulatory actions: a voluntary software recall after vehicles illegally passed stopped school buses in Texas (NHTSA investigation opened), a ~3,800-vehicle voluntary recall tied to San Antonio floodwater incidents, an NTSB investigation into the Texas school-bus violations, and an NHTSA investigation into a January 2026 incident in which a Waymo struck a child near a Santa Monica school (minor injuries). Waymo temporarily suspended freeway rides in May 2026 after vehicles struggled in construction zones. Expansion: Waymo plans 20+ additional cities in 2026 (Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, Washington DC and more) plus its first international markets, London and Tokyo. Forward plans, distinct from current operating markets.

Reality check

Safety claim (Waymo)

90% fewer serious-injury crashes vs. humans (company-stated)

Verified record

Verified deployments
11 deployments on file
Active incidents
27 incidents on file

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Models (3)

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Current platform

Ojai

Waymo's Ojai is its first purpose-built, rider-first robotaxi - a van-style vehicle built by Zeekr and outfitted with Waymo's 6th-generation Driver (13 cameras, 4 lidars, 6 radars for an overlapping 360-degree view detecting objects up to ~500 m), cutting sensor count ~42% versus the 5th-gen stack.

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Retired

Waymo Via (autonomous trucking)

Waymo's autonomous-trucking program (Waymo Via), which applied the Waymo Driver to Class 8 trucks and ran supervised freight pilots with UPS, J.B. Hunt, and Wayfair (and a Daimler Truck partnership). Waymo suspended the Via trucking program in July 2023 to focus on robotaxi, and it was never revived. The Waymo Driver continues only in Waymo's robotaxi application.

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Current platform

Waymo Driver 6th-gen

The sixth-generation Waymo Driver is Waymo's autonomous driving stack for fully autonomous robotaxi service. The platform integrates 13 cameras, 4 lidars, 6 radars, and external audio receivers, with overlapping 360° coverage and a detection range up to roughly 500 meters in nominal conditions. Compared to the fifth-generation system on the Jaguar I-PACE, the sixth-gen system uses 42% fewer total sensors. Waymo says the per-unit hardware cost is targeted under $20,000, a more than 50% reduction from the 5th-gen system. Currently runs on the Zeekr RT (sold as the “Ojai” robotaxi, purpose-built without a steering wheel or pedals) and the Hyundai IONIQ 5; began fully autonomous commercial operations in February 2026.

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Relationships

HHyundai Motor GroupManufacturerJJaguar Land RoverManufacturerEElement FleetDistributorDDragoneer Investment GroupInvestorDDST GlobalInvestorSSequoia CapitalInvestorAAlphabetInvestorAAndreessen Horowitz (a16z)InvestorMMubadala Investment CompanyInvestorSSilver LakeInvestor

Current leadership (5)

Former / Previously (9)

  • Yao Maoqing Researcher (former)secondary-verified
  • Andreas Wendel Perception tech leadsecondary-verified
  • Daniel Chu Chief Product Officersecondary-verified
  • Jaime Waydo Systems engineersecondary-verified
  • Jiajun Zhu Principal software engineer (Google self-driving)secondary-verified
  • Dave Ferguson Principal ML engineer (Google self-driving)secondary-verified
  • Chris Urmson CTO (Google self-driving project)secondary-verified
  • Boris Sofman Engineering Leader2018 to 2025reported, not verified
  • Kevin Peterson Engineering Leader2018 to 2025reported, not verified

Safety record

16 recalls and 11 incidents on record (7 serious, 7 moderate, 6 minor). Most recent: Jul 2026.

serious
7
moderate
7
minor
6
Severity not classified
7
recall
16
regulatory action
5
other
2
collision
2
malfunction
1
injury
1

Most recent: Jul 2026

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Incidents affecting Waymo (27)

Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Operated deployments (11)

Operator customers (2)

Brains developed (1)

Recent coverage

Waymo in third-party press

New California laws July 1 2026: AV regulations, police can ticket robotaxis

Jul 1, 2026

Uber and Waymo Have Ended Their Robotaxi Tie-Up in Phoenix; Uber to Announce New Partner

Jun 29, 2026

Waymo and Uber quietly part ways in Phoenix

Jun 29, 2026

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