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Although no deals were announced, the move signals a desire to
finally monetize the company's valuable research amid fierce
competition from a score of rivals all vying to be the first to
launch production-ready self-driving cars.
Google's high-profile program, now in its seventh year, has been
at the forefront of self-driving technology, but is now
challenged by companies from Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] to
Apple Inc <AAPL.O> and traditional car companies in the
fast-growing industry.
"It's an indication of the maturity of our technology," John
Krafcik, Waymo's chief executive, told reporters at a press
conference in San Francisco. "We can imagine our self-driving
tech being used in all sorts of areas."
The move shows "confidence that we are close to bringing this
(technology) to a lot of people," Krafcik said. "We've sort of
reached an inflection point."
That came in October 2015, when one of the company's
self-driving cars gave the first fully autonomous ride in
Austin, Texas, to a blind man with no one else in the car.
Normally during testing, an engineer sits in the passenger seat
to monitor the technology.
Until now, the program has been part of secretive research unit
Google X. Waymo stands for "A new way forward in mobility,"
according to Krafcik.
Waymo would reveal when the technology will be production-ready
"soon", he said.
Krafcik reiterated that Waymo has no interest in producing
self-driving cars, but rather in developing the technology to
drive them. Possible applications would be in ride-sharing,
transportation, trucking, logistics, and personal use vehicles,
he said.
Fiat Chrysler <FCHA.MI>, Google's first partner, teamed up with
the tech company in May to work together to integrate Google's
self-driving system into 100 of the carmaker's minivans.
Google's goal to perfect an autonomous vehicle that requires
zero human intervention stands in contrast to that of some other
automakers developing partial autonomy, which requires some
driver supervision. Google's self-driving cars have driven over
2 million miles and testing now focuses on the trickiest
scenarios faced by cars on surface streets.
Google has expanded its program over the past year, hiring more
engineers while doubling its testing centers from two U.S.
cities to four.
Although there have been some significant departures over the
past year - Chief Technical Officer Chris Urmson left in August
after leading the project from its inception - some new hires
have pointed to the program's readiness to move past its
experimental stage.
In July, the project appointed its first general counsel and a
month later it hired former Airbnb executive Shaun Stewart as
director of the project, with a mandate to commercialize the
company's self-driving technology.
(Reporting By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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