According to Reuters, Alphabet's autonomous driving subsidiary, Waymo, has announced the completion of a $5.6 billion funding round led by Alphabet, aimed at expanding its autonomous taxi services.
Waymo stated that venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity Investments, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price also participated in the funding round.
"With this latest investment, we will continue to expand the Waymo One taxi service areas in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, allowing more people to experience autonomous taxis," Waymo noted. "Additionally, through our partnership with Uber, we are also providing services in Austin and Atlanta."
Despite widespread skepticism and strict regulatory scrutiny surrounding autonomous driving technology, automakers and tech companies continue to invest in autonomous taxi services, hoping to drive commercial success with this technology. In July, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said that Alphabet plans to invest $5 billion in Waymo over the coming years.
Waymo currently offers paid autonomous vehicle rides in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, Arizona. Before receiving its first autonomous taxi operation license from the California Public Utilities Commission in 2022, Waymo conducted millions of miles of testing.
In addition to Waymo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced plans to launch public autonomous taxi services in California and Texas next year. Other companies competing in the autonomous taxi sector include Cruise, General Motors' autonomous driving subsidiary, which temporarily pulled its fleet off the road after a major traffic incident last year and is now testing vehicles with human safety drivers. Meanwhile, Amazon's Zoox is testing autonomous vehicles designed without steering wheels or pedals.
