Google has yet again reiterated its desire to develop a new way of mobility following the announcement that it will rebrand its self-driving car unit. Management at Google have made a series of decisions in the last number of months which illustrate clearly its desire to ramp up operations in relation to autonomous driving technology.
The decision has been made to rebrand Google's self-driving unit - and it has been rebranded as Waymo - in order to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around. The global tech giants disclosed details of the arrangement between themselves and Waywo in a press statement issued to the press.
It has been established that Waymo will become an independent operating unit within Google's parent holding company Alphabet as it continues to move forward on developing new mobility solutions and autonomous driving innovations.
CEO of Waywo, John Krafci, said he was excited about this new project and firmly believes they can create safer forms of transport by embarking on this joint-venture.
The former Hyundai executive said: "We believe that this technology can begin to reshape some of the ten trillion miles that motor vehicles travel around the world every year, with safer, more efficient and more accessible forms of transport. We can see our technology being useful in personal vehicles, ridesharing, logistics, or solving last mile problems for public transport. In the long term, self-driving technology could be useful in ways the world has yet to imagine, creating many new types of products, jobs and services."
The charismatic CEO added that Waymo represented a new way forward in mobility, declaring that they are a self-driving technology company whose mission is to make it safe and easy for people to move around. To demonstrate its technology, the company said it used one of its vehicles to transport Austin, Texas, resident Steve Mahan, who is legally blind.
"This ride was possible because our cars can now handle the most difficult driving tasks, such as detecting and responding to emergency vehicles, mastering multi-lane four-way stops, and anticipating what unpredictable humans will do on the road," a statement said.
Google has been working on autonomous driving since 2009, and recently moved this unit into its Google X division which has included projects such as internet delivery by drone and package delivery. The new reorganization creates a separate unit for the automotive operations.
A fact sheet from the company said Waymo's next steps "will be to let people use fully self-driving cars to do everyday things like run errands or commute to work."
The company declined to comment on a report in The Information that said it was scrapping plans for its own branded vehicles to focus on partnerships with auto manufacturers.
A separate report by Bloomberg said Waymo would be partnering with Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles in a new ridesharing venture to launch next year.
Such a plan would put the tech giant in competition with Uber, into which Google's venture capital fund has an equity stake.