Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Waymo announced Friday it had raised $5.6 billion in an oversubscribed investment round led by Alphabet, with contributions from Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.
The company said the funding will support the expansion of its autonomous ride-hailing service, Waymo One, in multiple U.S. cities and advance its AI-powered Waymo Driver platform.
Waymo stated the funding will enable its ongoing rollout of Waymo One in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and soon Austin and Atlanta, through an expanded partnership with Uber.
The autonomous rides in Austin and Atlanta are set to begin in 2025, operating Jaguar’s fully electric I-PACE vehicles exclusively via the Uber app.
“While AI is only just beginning to capture the public imagination, Waymo has been working to bring its endless possibilities to the world of physical transportation for years,” said Egon Durban, Co-CEO, Silver Lake.
“The Waymo Driver leads in earning trust by safely actualizing the value and potential of AI through cutting-edge research, practical solutions, and a vastly expanding scope and scale of real world experience,” Durban added.
Uber announced in September that, starting early next year, it will start providing autonomous ride-hailing to Austin and Atlanta as its partnership with Waymo is expanded.
The rides will be in Waymo‘s fully electric I-PACE model from the premium carmaker Jaguar and will be exclusively available through the Uber App.
In early April, Waymo partnered with Uber Eats to deliver food across neighborhoods in Phoenix, including Chandler, Mesa, and Tempe.
This option, which does not incur any additional fees for customers, can be cheaper than the standard delivery person option, according to the companies.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
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