Waymo, the autonomous driving technology company by Google’s parent Alphabet on Monday made the announcement of its latest funding of $2.25 billion led by Silver Lake (US), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Mubadala Investment Company (UAE); with participation from other backers including Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz, AutoNation, and Alphabet itself.
This is the first external funding round for Waymo which will help the company to accelerate its former Google car unit and deploy autonomous cars and trucks.
Commenting on the investment round, John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo said…
“Today, we’re expanding that team, adding financial investors and important strategic partners who bring decades of experience investing in and supporting successful technology companies building transformative products.”
Giving a glimpse to the utilisation of funds, Krafcik added…
“we’ll deepen our investment in our people, our technology, and our operations, all in support of the deployment of the Waymo Driver around the world.”
Waymo – At present
Waymo is operating an autonomous rideshare pilot program in Arizona, with some of the rides without any human driver. The company has also announced new tests in the US states including Texas and New Mexico. The company is utilising the same autonomous technology for self-driving trucks that haul the cargo bound for Alphabet data centres in Georgia.
The company in a recent statement revealed that the Waymo driver technology has logged more than 20 million miles on public roads across over 25 cities, and over 10 billion miles in simulation.
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