4 ms·

I dont understand Waymo and what they are doing. What is their path to making money on this? They are not building their own cars, haven't partnered with any a

I dont understand Waymo and what they are doing. What is their path to making money on this? They are not building their own cars, haven't partnered with any automakers either. In fact they discussed with a bunch of them and couldn't convince any company to partner with them. Most of the automakers already are investing heavily in their own autonomous tech stack. Unless they blow everyone out of the water with their technology I don't see them selling their stuff to automakers. The only path then is an Uber competitor. That means they have to acquire a fleet custom made for their solution. That is a huge investment a large undertaking, not sure Waymo has it in them to do it. This is not Google wave to abandon so I am sure they will not do so, however I will not be surprised if people grow frustrated by the lack of clarity.

vl 6y ago
What do you mean by “what is their path to making money on this?” Original founders cashed out very well (remember Lewandowski’s 120 millions?). I’m sure current management will manage just fine in the private round or some other “stock buyback program”.
TuringNYC 6y ago
I get your frustration -- but at the same time, i'm darn glad they are doing "stuff" whatever it might be. Self driving cars will change the world in so many ways. Traditional industry was too close-minded to tackle the challenge and now we have non-traditional players (Google, Uber) leading the charge -- this has spurred traditional players to jump in. It also creates a statistical-ish way to spread strategy bets in approach. Hopefully some combination of the many approaches being used wins -- then we all win.