They didn't say it in so many words, but that was basically the terms of the deal. In late 2015 former Hyundai America CEO Krafcik was crowned CEO of Waymo by L

They didn't say it in so many words, but that was basically the terms of the deal. In late 2015 former Hyundai America CEO Krafcik was crowned CEO of Waymo by Larry Page, who saw Krafik as a guy who knew how to talk turkey with car guys. Krafcik's first order of business was to hammer out a deal with Ford, and by that time Waymo had ceded on many of their initial terms, as they were starting to get nervous, because it does take a good 5-7 years to design a vehicle and tool up a production line, and time is of the essence. Apparently Ford wanted significant capital investments from Alphabet as part of the deal, and Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said 'no' to that, so the deal fell through and Ford's then CEO Mark Fields was (eventually) fired and replaced by Jim Hackett as a result. The other thing that happened around the same time was a talent exodus from Waymo. Ford hired ex-Google self driving car project program manager Brian Salesky to lead the formation of Argo.ai, Ford's own robotaxi subsidiary, and Argo seems to be coming along but it's too early to gauge how well they're really doing.