The world's most experienced autonomous driver
HQ: Mountain View, CA, United States | Founded: 2009 | Employees: 2,500+ | Stage: Late Stage VC - Alphabet Subsidiary | Website: https://waymo.com
Waymo began in 2009 as the Google Self-Driving Car Project led by Sebastian Thrun, Dmitri Dolgov and Anthony Levandowski, and was spun out as Waymo LLC under Alphabet in December 2016. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company developed the Waymo Driver, an integrated autonomous stack of custom LiDAR, radar, cameras, compute and software now in its 5th generation. After logging 30M+ autonomous miles and 127M+ miles for safety evaluation (90% fewer serious crashes vs. human drivers), Waymo launched Waymo One, the first public commercial robotaxi service, and operates a growing fleet of all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles with next-gen Zeekr RT platform in production.
Waymo One provides fully driverless ride-hailing in Phoenix (including Sky Harbor Airport), San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, with Atlanta expansion via an exclusive Uber partnership and highway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco. Waymo Via, its autonomous trucking platform, has been scaled back since 2023 to focus resources on ride-hailing. The company charges per-ride fares comparable to Uber/Lyft, generates ~$125-200M in estimated 2024 revenue, and partners with Jaguar Land Rover, Zeekr (Geely), Uber, and Alphabet for mapping, compute and distribution. It is co-led by Co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov under Alphabet ownership.
Waymo is the undisputed robotaxi leader, now valued at $45B after its $5.6B Series C (Oct 2024) led by Alphabet with Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Perry Creek and Tiger Global. With $11B+ raised, 100,000+ weekly paid rides in 2024, and operations in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin (Atlanta via Uber), Waymo has pulled ahead of Cruise, Tesla FSD, Zoox and Baidu Apollo by proving true driverless commercial scale with its 5th-gen Waymo Driver, Jaguar I-PACE and Zeekr platforms, while Waymo Via trucking has been deprioritized to focus on ride-hailing.
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