Google Spins Off Self-Driving Car Unit As 'Waymo'

Attendees inspect a Google self-driving car that's now part of Waymo's test fleet, at a conference in Paris in June. Google's self-driving car group, which helped ignite a race among automakers and tech firms to develop cars that drive themselves, is spinning off as a stand-alone unit dubbed Waymo. While Google was an early leader in popularizing the vision of vehicles driven by artificial intelligence rather than a human, it now faces intense competition to commercialize the technology. Uber, the ride-hailing giant, this year acquired robot-trucking tech developer Otto, a company begun by Google alumni, and has set a goal of getting autonomous vehicles into its fleet as soon as possible. Likewise, Elon Musk is pushing Tesla Motors to be a leader in driverless car technology and has begun equipping all of its electric vehicles with sensors and computing power intended to automate control of driving functions.