Waymo is delaying its development of autonomous trucking technologies so it can focus on its ride-hailing service, Waymo One.
In a blog post, the company said that “given the tremendous momentum and substantial commercial opportunity we’re seeing on the ride-hailing front,” it believes that focusing on Waymo One is the best thing. It added that it sees significant business growth in this sector as well as increased rider demand in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
“Laser-focusing on ride-hailing today puts us, our partners, and our customers in a strong position to be successful in the future across all of the business lines we pursue over time, showcasing the breadth of the Waymo Driver,” Waymo confirmed.
While Waymo will focus on autonomous ride-hailing and push back the timeline on its commercial and operational efforts on trucks, it confirmed that it will continue its ongoing collaboration with Daimler Truck North American “to advance technical development of an autonomous truck platform.”
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“Both our companies share the common goal of improving road safety and efficiency for fleet customers, so we’ll follow through with the platform investments we’ve made to create a redundant chassis to facilitate autonomous trucking,” Waymo said. “We look forward to continuing to bring together our autonomous tech with DTNA’s autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia® platform and exploring the potential of future platforms. Our ongoing investment in advancing Waymo Driver capabilities, especially on freeway, will directly translate to trucking and benefit its development efforts.”
Waymo expanded its autonomous ride-hailing service in Phoenix in May, confirming that its vehicles can now operate autonomously across 180 square miles in the city. Additionally, Waymo has partnered with Uber to offer driverless robotaxi rides throughout the city. Uber users will also be able to order food via Uber Eats and have it delivered with a Waymo autonomous vehicle.
