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welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.
this publication is a place for me to reflect on productivity, health and tech, and drop unique opportunities in the space right to your inbox daily. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in!💌
scroll to the end for my daily roundup on unique opportunities!
onto today’s topic: waymo 🚘️
i called a self-driving car to pick me up the other day for the first time and it was pretty surreal. sure, we haven’t yet unlocked flying cars, but watching the steering wheel do its thing at an empty seat was pretty damn cool.
it’s so common to see waymo cars in san francisco. last year, they were still undergoing data collection and the cars didn’t take any passengers. only a year later when i visited again, it was suddenly commonplace to call a self-driving car from your phone at any given time. 📱
waymo was originally a project within google, but spun out as an independent company in 2016. it currently primarily operates as a b2c ride-hailing service, like uber but entirely autonomous.
let’s talk numbers! 🤓
fueled by google’s $5 billion investment, waymo is positioned as a market leader in the robotaxi market which is projected to grow to $78.42 billion by 2032, with a high cagr of 75% during the 2024–2032 period (source).
the company has achieved significant growth in its ride-hailing operations, facilitating 50,000+ autonomous rides weekly in san francisco and phoenix, and contributing to over 1 million cumulative autonomous miles driven since launch (source).
questions i’d be interested to ask:
in the context of safety, how do you plan for people abusing the safety features of the technology? ex. with the cases of people purposefully stopping the waymos to harass passengers? 😬
are there plans to eventually commercialize the cars themselves? expansion beyond ride services?
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