Chandler, Arizona—Alphabet Inc’s Waymo may lose its lead in the U.S. competition to prove that robot taxis are a viable business because it insists on providing limited services and competitors are on their own The release of the near gets the support of the car manufacturer.

Companies such as Ford Motor Company’s Argo AI and General Motors’ Cruise are competing for the billions of dollars in financing needed to achieve autonomous driving through artificial intelligence software and expensive sensors.

Waymo is a leader in this field. As the country's first and only fully driverless taxi service, Waymo has served thousands of people since opening it east of Phoenix a year ago to anyone downloading its taxi-hailing app. Since August, hundreds of people in San Francisco have tried taxis equipped with safety drivers.

But Waymo lacks investment from a major automaker, which analysts say may hinder its efforts to expand its fleet.

Waymo's plan to tout up to 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica minivans and 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace SUVs in 2018 has yet to materialize. A person familiar with the matter said that a large order for vehicles to provide cameras has been reduced. Another source said that past cooperation negotiations with automaker Hyundai Motor Co. have also failed.

Waymo’s ride-hailing service in Arizona did not extend beyond the suburbs. According to government records obtained by Reuters, it asked for permission to ride at Phoenix Airport in 2018, but did not perform the procedure or approach San Francisco Airport at all.

Waymo cars still have something to learn. Reuters saw that drop-off points in some Arizona shopping malls prevented access to parking spaces for people with disabilities within minutes. Disability advocates called this a potential illegal act.

Raj Rajkumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, said that high personnel costs may also cause Waymo to expand slowly. Riders in Arizona told Reuters that support personnel monitored in person or remotely had to redirect vehicles that were paralyzed by freight pallets, wrong stop signs, and road paving equipment.

Waymo has a different view.

Establishing partnerships with several automakers from all over the world, instead of investing from just one automaker, it has achieved unparalleled ambitions in the fields of trucking, grocery delivery, and so on. Waymo stated that it has achieved all production goals and launched hundreds of I-Pace crossovers.

The company said: "It makes no sense to bet on a single OEM (equipment manufacturer)-it will increase our risk and reduce our future market path." "The future of autonomous driving is more than just a ride-hailing service."

At the Reuters Next conference held last week, Waymo's co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana stated that the company is in a "strong phase of not only developing technology but also developing business opportunities."

"There are a lot of things to do the first time you do this," she said. "Then you build a script and it will be easier to replicate it in the city of the future."

Waymo recently started testing in the center of Phoenix, but there are no riders. It stated that personnel costs were not the decisive factor in the plan, and its system tried to avoid parking in handicapped parking spaces.

Cruise's goal is to obtain a license for self-driving products in the middle of the night in San Francisco next year, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to promise fully autonomous vehicles. Argo said it will work with Lyft to open a robotic taxi in Miami before the New Year—with a safety driver present.

All companies have failed to achieve their goals or scale down plans, but some observers believe that Waymo's status has changed.

"Waymo is now catching up," said Grayson Brulte, president of Brulte & Co, an autonomous mobile consulting firm.

Waymo was born in 2009 as an internal Google project and has raised $5.75 billion in funds since 2020.

Some analysts believe that the resignation of former CEO John Krafcik and other executives this year shows that Alphabet management is disappointed by the slow progress, and Waymo has denied this accusation. Krafcik is still a consultant.

Waymo’s strategy puts safety first and incorporates feedback. It avoided a major accident and proved its caution.

Zhao Hang, an assistant professor at Tsinghua University and a former Waymo scientist, said that although more engineers are needed, Waymo has adopted a safe method to solve artificial intelligence problems, especially in sharp contrast with Tesla's strategy.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Swamy Kotagiri, CEO of Waymo investor and auto industry supplier Magna International Inc, told analysts in July that he expects a “long road” for fully autonomous vehicles, adding that even by 2030, only “small amounts” will be produced. "car.

Waymo's exciting progress and optimism has promoted the development of the industry, and then CEO Chris Urmson (Chris Urmson) said in 2015 that he hoped his son will rely on self-driving cars in 2020.

Urmson's new company, Aurora, with the support of major automakers, now aims to commercialize autonomous driving by 2024. But his earlier vision has been fulfilled, narrowly. In Chandler, the suburban center of Waymo's commercial operations, Intel engineer John Mitkowski is one of the residents who commute to get off work in unmanned minivans every day.

"Get in the car, get in the car," Mitkowski said of his 3-mile, $8-way Waymo trip.

But he needs other options when flying or going to a nearby university or some favorite golf course. His wife was afraid of taking a robot taxi, and his daughter, who had just graduated from university, chose a convenient car.

According to customer Jordan Lanus, Waymo’s limited supply in Arizona caused a 30-minute wait this year. He switched to the ride-sharing service Lyft. If the car was picked up 26 minutes earlier, it would cost an extra $4 for dinner.

The company said that most people who open the Waymo app see waiting times of less than 10 minutes and the number of passengers is growing.

Mawakana served as a promotion for half a year, and she said she had learned not to estimate the timetable. She refuses to predict when Waymo will abandon safe drivers in San Francisco, or may demonstrate profitability.

"We learned that it doesn't matter," she said of the forecast.

About the photo: In this file photo on April 7, 2021, a Waymo minivan arrives in Mesa, Arizona to pick up passengers for autonomous driving. Waymo is a derivative product of Google's self-driving car, and it is expanding its scope of self-driving-a ride-hailing service in San Francisco. The company said that selected "trusted testers" customers in Gulf Coast cities will be able to ride in self-driving Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)

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