We wondered what Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai meant when he said on their earnings call last Thursday that for Waymos, “there is future optionality for personal ownership.”
Well, we only had to wait a minute to find out. Waymo announced today that they’re developing autonomous technology with a little automotive manufacturer you may have heard of: Toyota.
Tucked into the announcement, Waymo also plans to release a generalizable autonomous driving system for any given vehicle. Read our full analysis!
It will be fascinating to see just how autonomous this package will be, and where it can and cannot go. Will the vehicle be able to drive with no occupants? Can it handle gravel roads, tow a trailer?
The Waymo cabs drive without occupants all the time, so assuming that it’s driving in a city that it’s familiar with (right now that’s LA, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin), I don’t see why the consumer version wouldn’t be able to.
