Waymo Maintains Lead in Self-Driving Car Race

One would expect that the vast majority of Waymo's autonomous miles will come in Phoenix in 2018, where the company is launching a commercial pilot of its self-driving taxi service. Soon, however, Waymo will be expanding that trial to more cities. Chrysler recently reported that they are set to deliver "thousands" of the customized minivans that Waymo uses over the next year "to support Waymo as it expands its service to more cities across the United States." All this to say: Waymo's been at it the longest and is certainly furthest along in developing a real autonomous service. The only company that's even in the same order of magnitude, in terms of miles driven in California, is Cruise, which was acquired by GM.