Analysis | Who’s winning the self-driving car race?

Alphabet’s Waymo, which has run self-driving cars over 8 million kilometres in 25 cities and done billions more in computer simulation, is currently leading the pack of companies working on autonomous vehicles

Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent Alphabet, is the only company that has tested Level 4 vehicles on passengers who are not its employees. On the five-step scale of autonomous driving, Level 4 is the threshold at which a car can drive on pre-mapped routes and handle anything on its planned course without the intervention of a driver. Photo: Handout

In the race to start the world’s first driving business without human drivers, everyone is chasing Alphabet’s Waymo.

The Google sibling has cleared the way to beat its nearest rivals, General Motors (GM) and a couple of other players, by at least a year to introduce driverless cars to the public. A deal reached in January to buy thousands of additional Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which get kitted out with sensors that can see hundreds of metres in any direction, puts Waymo’s lead into stark relief. No other company is offering for-hire rides yet, let alone preparing to carry passengers in more than one city this year.

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