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Over the past several years, there have been plenty of headlines concerning autonomous vehicles, and the inevitable self-driving future hurdling toward us. The race is on to determine the winners in this fast-emerging industry.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), has long been considered the front-runner, being the first to have a working model on the highways and byways of America. Competition is beginning to loom, however, as evidenced by the increasing number of test drives by well-heeled competitors.
Let's look at recent announcements by Waymo, General Motors (NYSE: GM), and Ford Motor (NYSE: F) that give insight into the fast-approaching future of self-driving cars.
Image source: Waymo.
Cruise Automation, the self-driving start-up acquired by GM in 2016, just announced a partnership with food delivery service DoorDash to begin testing driverless deliveries. The service will be tested in San Francisco, Cruise's home base. A human "safety driver" will be located in each vehicle to take the wheel in the case of an emergency. A select number of DoorDash merchants will participate in the test, which is looking into the challenges of driverless food delivery and how they can be overcome.
Ford, which pumped $1 billion into Argo AI in 2017, announced in October 2018 that it would expand its autonomous testing program to Washington, D.C. early this year, joining ongoing tests in Detroit, Miami, and Pittsburgh. This is part of a two-pronged strategy for the company -- testing self-driving vehicles on the roads, while also testing the business model and public perception of the technology.
Ford turned heads early last year when it partnered with Domino's Pizza to test self-driving pizza deliveries. Unlike at GM, the car will still be driven by a human driver, while researchers on board will be working to understand how customers respond to and interact with what they believe is a self-driving car. Ford expanded these tests in mid-2018 to include urban delivery start-up Postmates. Walmart joined Ford's delivery tests in November.
Waymo launched its commercial ride-hailing service in four Phoenix suburbs in December, after an extensive testing program. The service, called Waymo One, is currently only available to customers who participated in the company's Early Rider program. Human backup drivers will initially accompany the vehicles, though Waymo hasn't provided a timeline for eliminating them. The company plans to expand the program in the coming months and years.