Why waymo is becoming more popular then alphabet?
Waymo, the autonomous driving unit of Alphabet, has reached a tipping point in driverless ride-hailing. It now completes over 100,000 rides per week in the U.S. and, in San Francisco, its market share is on par
This progress has understandably caused concern for Lyft and Uber. However, partnering with Waymo instead of competing against it appears to be a smart move. The logic is straightforward: many autonomous driving programs have failed. Uber ended its program in 2020, and GM’s Cruise was paused. Developing the technology is both expensive and complex, but achieving adoption and user trust is an even greater challenge. Waymo has demonstrated it can meet market demand, making it faster and more effective for Uber and Lyft to integrate Waymo’s technology into their fleets rather than reinvent the wheel.
Waymo stands to gain as well. Outfitting a car with autonomous driving technology currently costs an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 per vehicle (2024 figures). That’s prohibitively expensive for consumer sales. However, ride-hailing revenue can help offset these costs, and with greater scale and time, equipment costs are expected to decrease. While profit margins may not appear lucrative initially, they are likely to improve as operational efficiency increases
This is astonishing, considering Waymo started in 2020, while Lyft began its journey in 2012, and Uber even earlier in 2010. Human drivers are facing disruption faster than expected. For years (and even now), convincing people that computers could drive better than humans seemed like a tough sell. However, Waymo has excelled by focusing on safety and proving that most fatal road accidents can be avoided by removing human error. While some passengers remain skeptical, enough people are willing to take Waymo rides that the company now completes over 100,000 rides per week. This marks the first time an autonomous driving company has achieved such scale, and Waymo is expanding rapidly to other cities. It has clearly hit a tipping point.
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