Waymo raises $5.6bn in driverless car boost

Google spin-out Waymo has raised another $5.6bn for its driverless car technology, bringing the total to over $11bn.

The funding will be used expand its Waymo One ride-hailing service in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and in Austin and Atlanta through Uber in 2025. It will also be used to boost the development of the AI Waymo Driver software.

The sixth generation Driver software uses 13 cameras, 4 lidar, 6 radar, and an array of external audio receivers (EARs) and is optimized for greater performance at a significantly reduced cost, without compromising safety. It provides the Waymo Driver software with overlapping fields of view, all around the vehicle, up to 500 meters away, day and night, and in a range of weather conditions.

Waymo is also testing the driverless car system in more complex environments through road trips to cities like Buffalo, New York, and Washington, D.C

The company has begun fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco, providing over 100,000 paid weekly trips, up tenfold from last year.

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Earlier this month Waymo signed a deal with Hyundai to use the all-electric IONIQ 5 in its fleet. The 800V vehicles will be assembled at the new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) EV manufacturing facility in Georgia with redundant hardware and power doors and then integrated with Waymo’s autonomous technology.

The companies plan to produce a fleet of IONIQ 5s equipped with Waymo’s technology in ‘significant volume over multiple years’.

Waymo also uses vehicles from UK car maker Jaguar Land Rover in its fleet and is the exclusive autonomous technology supplier to Fiat.

The Series C round, led by led by Google owner Alphabet, was oversubscribed and includes continued participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price.

“The company has built the safest product in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem as well as the best,” said Chase Coleman, Founder of Tiger Global. “Their proven experience fostering rider loyalty, securing key partnerships, and collaborating with automotive industry leaders demonstrates their ability to balance ambitious goals with responsible execution, positioning them as the enduring leader in the space.”

“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.”