Waymo
7/10Commercial / Scale — operating public robotaxi services and expanding geographies.Subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.; primarily funded internally by Alphabet (no public VC funding rounds as an independent company).Mountain View, California, USA
Description
Developer and operator of autonomous driving technology and a robotaxi service, originally spun out of Google’s self-driving car project.
Why in News
Received regulatory approval to expand its fully autonomous driving operations across more of the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California, enabling broader commercial deployment of its robotaxi service.
Founders
Originated from Google’s self-driving project (key early figures include Sebastian Thrun, Chris Urmson and Dmitri Dolgov); spun out as Waymo in 2016 (first CEO John Krafcik).
Published
January 20, 2026
Website
https://waymo.comAnalysis
Waymo is an AI-driven robotaxi company (although part of Alphabet); the article likely covers autonomous driving tech and deployment, making it highly relevant to AI companies/startups in mobility.