Say “Hello” to Waymo: Google’s self-driving car unit

MANILA: Most of the automakers across the globe are working to come up with self-driving cars and in this race, even tech giants are also not behind. Google is also working on its self-driving car project and to take it to the next level, the company has recast the project as an independent unit named as Waymo. Yes, Alphabet Inc has added another independent unit under it with an aim to bring the autonomous driving to the public at the earliest.

There are no deals announced yet but, it is expected that the company is finally looking on the monetization front of its valuable research. It is the 7th year of Google’s high-profile program and since then the company is facing a tough challenge from the likes of Uber Technologies Inc., Apple Inc and other big automakers.

The Chief Executive Officer of Waymo said, “It is an indication of the maturity of our technology. We can imagine our self-driving tech being used in all sorts of areas and looking to come up with our first production ready car soon.” He further added, “The move shows confidence that we are close to bringing this technology to a lot of people.”

Google has already conducted several tests of its self-driving cars in Austin, Texas last year in October. The testing was done with a blind man in the car with no one else inside. Usually, an engineer sits inside a car to monitor the technology. The focus of Google is more on the technology rather on the production-ready models, which can be further used in ride-sharing, transportation, trucking, logistics, and personal use vehicles.

Fiat Chrysler was the first partner of Google, which agreed to integrate Google’s self-driving system into its 100 minivans. After making the project as an independent entity, the company has appointed new engineers to escalate the activities and now let’s see when the company becomes set to come up with production ready technology for the mass market.