What is Waymo’s Endgame?

When you think about Waymo, the autonomous vehicle arm of Alphabet, you likely envision self-driving cars cruising around San Francisco or Phoenix. But what is their ultimate goal? Why partner with Uber, a potential competitor, when they could build their own ride-hailing empire to rival Uber, Lyft, Zoox, and Tesla? Waymo’s strategy suggests it is aiming for something far more transformative than simply competing in ride-sharing.

Becoming the Operating System for Self-Driving

Waymo doesn’t want to be just another ride-hailing company. It’s positioning itself as the backbone of autonomous driving—the “Android” of mobility. Running massive vehicle fleets is a resource-intensive endeavor. Waymo’s real strength lies in its software and technology, not fleet management.

• Platform Approach: Waymo’s partnerships with Uber, Lyft, and automakers like Jaguar, Hyundai, and Volvo allow it to integrate its autonomous driving system into multiple platforms. Instead of competing for exclusive market share, it’s embedding itself across the industry.
• Market Reach: Through collaborations, Waymo scales rapidly, embedding its technology into fleets and vehicles globally without the financial burden of running all operations independently.
• Licensing Revenue: By licensing its software to ride-hailing platforms and automakers, Waymo earns revenue without the operational complexity of vehicle ownership.

Why Partner With Uber?

Waymo’s partnership with Uber raised eyebrows. Why collaborate with a competitor? The simple answer is mutual benefits.

• Instant Access to Riders: Uber’s vast global user base offers Waymo immediate access to millions of customers, bypassing the need to build its own network.
• Fleet Optimization: Integrating Waymo’s vehicles into Uber’s platform maximizes fleet utilization and revenue.
• Shared Responsibilities: Uber handles fleet logistics, while Waymo focuses solely on refining its autonomous technology.

Comprehensive Ecosystem

Waymo’s ambitions go far beyond ride-hailing. The company is constructing an ecosystem that includes:

• Robotaxis: Fully autonomous ride-hailing services form one cornerstone of Waymo’s strategy.
• Freight and Delivery: Expanding into logistics with autonomous trucking and last-mile delivery diversifies its revenue streams and reduces dependency on ride-hailing.
• Consumer Vehicles: Collaborating with automakers enables Waymo to bring its autonomous technology directly to car buyers, broadening its market reach.

“Owning the autonomous driving stack and licensing it out to partners allows Waymo to scale much faster than trying to dominate the ride-hailing market alone.”

Sam Abuelsamid, Guidehouse Insight

The Biggest Future Competitor 

Is Tesla Already Losing the RoboTaxi Race ? Waymo’s strategy contrasts sharply with Tesla’s. Tesla follows a vertically integrated model, designing and manufacturing cars with its proprietary Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. It is very unlikely that Tesla will try to sell their self-driving technology to competitors any time soon. Waymo, in contrast, takes a horizontal approach, aiming to serve as the technological backbone for numerous manufacturers, platforms, and services, embedding itself widely across the transportation ecosystem.