Alphabet's (GOOGL) Waymo Makes Way to Bellevue, Boosts Efforts

Alphabet GOOGL is leaving no stone unturned to expand its Waymo ride-hailing service across the United States.

This is evident from the latest move of testing its self-driving vehicles on the streets of Bellevue, WA.

Waymo’s all-electric six Jaguar I-PACE vehicles equipped with its fifth generation Waymo Driver technology will be operated on the roads of Bellevue for six months.

With the latest move, the company makes its foray into the Seattle region. With this, it will be able to check the performance of Waymo vehicles in wet weather.

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Expanding Waymo Efforts

The recent step is in sync with the company’s strengthening efforts toward expanding its operations and fleet, and making the vehicles more rider-friendly.

We note that Waymo in Bellevue marks Alphabet’s second expansion outside Phoenix, AZ.

The company is also gearing up to make its ride-hailing vehicles fully driverless on the streets of San Francisco. This marks Waymo’s first expansion outside Phoenix.

Waymo launched a rider-only service in downtown Phoenix, where it has been operating its autonomous vehicles with a company specialist seated in the driver's seat until now. The service in downtown Phoenix will be confined to a specific area, which is constrained by Interstate 17 on the west and south, Camelback Road on the north, and 44th Street on the east.

Waymo plans to roll out the driverless robotaxi service to regular passengers and expand its operating area eventually in downtown Phoenix.

Apart from these efforts, Alphabet’s partnership with Geely, a China-based automotive company, remains noteworthy. Per the terms of the deal, Geely’s electric mobility brand, Zeekr, will design and develop electric vehicles for Waymo, into which Waymo Driver will be integrated.

The vehicles will be introduced on the roads of the United States first. With the Geely partnership, Waymo will expand its Waymo One fleet.

The above-mentioned endeavors will help Alphabet further penetrate the booming autonomous driving space.

According to a Fortune Business Insights report, the global autonomous car market is expected to reach $11.03 billion by 2028, seeing a CAGR of 31.3% between 2021 and 2028.

Per a report by Mordor Intelligence, the worldwide driverless vehicle market is expected to see a CAGR of 18.06% between 2021 and 2026.

We believe that Alphabet’s growing prospects in this promising market will help it win investors’ confidence in the days ahead.

Coming to the price performance, Alphabet has lost 28% on a year-to-date basis against the industry’s decline of 26.2%.

Intensifying Competition

Given the upbeat scenario, not only Alphabet but companies like Intel INTC, Amazon AMZN and Baidu BIDU are also making every effort to capitalize on the growth prospects in the autonomous driving space.

Intel is gaining from the low power consumption of Mobileye chips and the ability to create maps for self-driving systems. The company plans to introduce a pilot for autonomous taxis and ride-hailing services in Munich and Tel Aviv in 2022.

In April 2022, the company gave a sneak peek of its robotaxi ride by rolling out a video of a 40-minute autonomous car ride around Jerusalem.

In addition to this, Mobileye recently teamed up with German electric mobility unit Benteler EV Systems and Beep to develop and deploy self-driving, fully-electric shuttles in the United States by 2024.

Amazon’s buyout of Zoox, a developer of autonomous ride-hailing vehicles, remains a major positive. The company’s launch of its first self-driving robotaxi strengthened its position in the autonomous driving space.

Currently, the company is gearing up to test its robotaxi in California. It has applied for a permit in California to test-drive its vehicles.

Zoox intends to open an engineering office and operations facility this year, which will act as a base for its autonomous vehicle testing.

Meanwhile, Baidu is gaining from the strong momentum of Apollo Go Robotaxi service across China on the back of its increasing availability in several cities and a growing number of rides.

Apollo Go is available in 10 cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Changsha, Cangzhou, Yangquan, Wuzhen Water Town and Wuhan.

Nevertheless, Alphabet’s growing autonomous driving initiatives are likely to help it stay ahead of the curve.

Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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