If you’ve ever wanted to own your own self-driving Waymo vehicle, and are willing to shell out a great deal of money for it, parent company Google/Alphabet says it may eventually start selling those vehicles to the public.
Silicon Valley has been chasing the dream of self-driving cars for more than ten years. But now that we have them, pretty much the only consumer use for them is ride-hailing, that is, as robotaxis. We do not yet have semi trucks hauling cargo across country, we do not have self-driving public transit buses, no one has a Waymo in their garage to use for personal trips.
But that may be where things are going. The Chronicle reports that Waymo is considering letting people buy their self-driving cars, or at least, that’s what parent company Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said on a Thursday company earnings call.
It was just a brief remark, but near the end of the call during the question-and-answer session, Pichai said of Waymo, “There is future optionality around personal ownership.”
Okay that’s just one sentence. But the Chronicle followed up with Waymo media relations, and they confirmed the company is definitely thinking of selling the vehicles to individuals at some point.
“Waymo is developing its generalizable Waymo Driver for multiple applications, focusing on ride-hailing first, with future plans to deploy the technology across delivery, trucking, and personal car ownership,” a Waymo spokesperson told the Chronicle.
But if you’re hot and heavy to have your own robot car with a tiny R2-D2 head on top, be aware that it would cost you a lot of money.
“The minimum cost (for a self-driving Waymo vehicle) is $250,000, and that’s being super generous,” University of San Francisco professor of engineering William Riggs told the Chronicle.
But there are probably enough billionaires in the Bay Area that Waymo would have a few takers, even at a quarter of a million dollars just for a car.
Related: Be Wary of Putting Stuff In the Trunk of a Waymo — Sometimes They Drive Off [SFist]
Image via Waymo
