In the race for the market for driverless robotaxis, the Google-Sister company Waymo their coffers for global expansion. Waymo raised $16 billion (around 13.5 billion euros) from investors in a financing round. The company was valued at a total of $126 billion, according to a statement.
Waymo’s robotaxis now make more than 400,000 paid rides with passengers per week without a human behind the wheel. They are in six US cities as well as the Silicon Valley on the way. The company is striving for rapid expansion in the USA in more than 20 other cities.
Waymo is coming to London
The vehicles will also soon be on the road in London and Tokyo. In total, Waymo cars have now driven autonomously for 127 million miles (a good 204 million kilometers). “We are able to move forward at unprecedented speed while maintaining our industry-leading security standards,” the Waymo statement said.
The valuation highlights investors’ interest in participating in the fast-growing robotaxi market and highlights how far Waymo has come since its beginnings as an ambitious project within Google 17 years ago. Analysts had estimated Waymo’s value at around $30 billion after a series of funding rounds just five years ago.
The new valuation could fuel recurring speculation that Waymo will ultimately seek an IPO as part of a spinoff from parent company Alphabet, which also owns Google. Alphabet, which has a market value of nearly $4.2 trillion, led the capital raising, which also included a number of prominent venture capitalists and investment funds.
Tesla left behind in autonomous driving
Tesla, on the other hand, has so far only used a few driverless robotaxis in the Texas city of Austin. They were accompanied until the end by guards in the passenger seat. But Musk announced that Tesla would be number one in just a few years autonomous driving and robotaxis. The key to this should be that commercially available cars come off the assembly line and drive completely independently. Tesla also wants to build a robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals starting this year.
However, Musk only wants to get by with cameras. Competitors and experts doubt whether this offers sufficient security. Because Waymo and other developers are also relying on additional sensors, especially laser radars, which scan the surroundings of the vehicles. But if Musk’s calculations work out, Tesla would have an enormous cost advantage.