JASON HENRY/Getty Images
- Alphabet is backing Waymo with a $5 billion investment.
- Waymo has provided over 50,000 paid autonomous rides weekly in active areas, according to Alphabet.
- Meanwhile, Tesla is gearing up to launch its own driverless taxi service.
Self-driving cars are still on the priority list at Alphabet.
During its second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, the Google owner said it had committed a "multi-year investment of $5 billion" to self-driving car service Waymo.
"Waymo is a real leader in the space and getting rave reviews from users," Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said.
According to Pichai, it has provided over 50,000 paid autonomous rides each week in San Francisco and Phoenix, and testing is underway in other parts of the Bay Area.
And Waymo's co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a statement on X that "we are grateful for their immense vote of confidence in our team and recognizing the amazing progress we've made with our technology, product, and commercialization efforts."
But Alphabet isn't alone in targeting the autonomous vehicle market. Tesla has been talking up its own self-driving future, even though a much-awaited event revealing more about its plans has been pushed back from August to October. Elon Musk — who has championed the future of autonomous driving — said "an important design change" was the reason behind the delay.
Reviews of Waymo (including Business Insider's own) have been positive, but the service has experienced issues around its driverless cars. The company issued a recall after two of its vehicles were involved in accidents in December.
Still, it appears Alphabet is optimistic about Waymo's future.