What next for Waymo?

By David Ngetich

Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo has just announced that they have just logged over 10 million miles. They have achieved this mileage immensely in the recent past thanks to its growing number of autonomous Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans. The company’s success in the road has also been as a result of the over 7 billion miles driven in its virtual world through simulations.

The company’s CEO, John Krafcik, noted on a post on medium that the next 10 million miles will be focus on improving the ride hailing service to make it more convenient and efficient. The plan is to build on the current early rider program which has over 400 users around the cities such as Phoenix. They want to ensure increased capability, comfort and convenience in the self-driving cars that are to come in the future.

There is also a lot of opportunities in the tracking industry for which Waymo could be among the first pioneers of autonomous trucking. There hasn’t been so much traction in the automation of this area as it could make or break this industry. A Waymo semi-truck was recently spotted in Sunnyvale California. This presents an opportunity for Waymo to leverage its technology to not only public transit but also retailers and other popular areas.