The Google driverless car is officially no more: as of now, the autonomous vehicle project is its own separate entity known as Waymo.
Earlier this week, rumours circulated that the program had experienced troubles and that Google’s parent company Alphabet was going to dissolve the entire project.
However, the fact that the driverless car project has now been spun out as its own standalone business appears to be a massive vote of confidence on behalf of Alphabet.
It’s still unclear whether or not the company will build an actual physical vehicle though, and it seems set to instead concentrate on developing technology and software.
Waymo’s CEO John Krafcik said in a blog post: “Waymo is a self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around.
“We can see our technology being useful in personal vehicles, ridesharing, logistics, or solving last mile problems for public transport.”
In other words, it appears that Waymo will now offer its technology to more mainstream car manufacturers instead of building the cute, koala-like Google car we’ve come to know and love.
First on Waymo’s to-do list will be to develop next-generation sensors for the Chrysler Pacifica, after Google announced a project in partnership with Fiat Chrysler to build test cars earlier this year.
