It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. In fall , Google provided "the world's first fully driverless ride on public roads". Google's development of self-driving technology began on January 17, , [ 4 ] [ non-primary source needed ] at Google X lab, run by co-founder Sergey Brin.
As part of Street View development, Toyota Priuses [ 6 ] were outfitted with Topcon digital mapping hardware developed by Systems. In , the Street View team launched project Ground Truth, [ 31 ] to create accurate road maps by extracting data from satellites and street views. As a Google employee, Levandowski asked Larry Page and Thrun whether Google was interested in participating in the show. Both declined, citing liability issues. The Stanford team Stanley vehicle provided its code base to the project.
The project success led Google to greenlight Google's self-driving car program in January After almost two years of road testing with seven vehicles, the New York Times revealed the existence of Google's project on October 9, Starting in , lawmakers in various states expressed concerns over how to regulate autonomous vehicles. A related Nevada law went into effect on March 1, In January [ 44 ] Google was granted a patent for a transportation service funded by advertising that included autonomous vehicles as a transport method.
In , Levandowski left the project. It was not accompanied by a test driver or police escort. In May , Google and Stellantis announced an order of Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans to test the self-driving technology. In , Waymo sued Uber for allegedly stealing trade secrets. In May , Waymo started a pilot program seeking riders in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. In June , Waymo announced a partnership with Uber, under which Waymo will integrate its autonomous technology into Uber's freight truck service.
In January , The Information reported that Waymo staff were among those affected by Google's layoffs of around 12, workers.
