Waymo Pile Drives Their Dominance Into NYC with New Permit Filing (Sorry, Tesla)

Elon be bigly mad…

Waymo, Alphabet’s fleet of self-driving nerd-mobiles, has officially filed the paperwork to start “testing” in Manhattan. And by “testing,” I mean, they’re going to drive around with an actual human behind the wheel, logging data and pretending not to notice the bumbashing events taking place on the sidewalk. Which means, while the permit sounds sexy, all this is is a glorified field trip for now. Waymo’s cars will be cruising the avenues with a trained specialist at the helm, making the only thing truly autonomous about these rides is the sense of existential dread every New Yorker feels when they see Silicon Valley inserting themselves onto their turf. 

(Source: Giphy) 

But, but, but… from there, the real goal for Waymo is to change state law so they can unleash the full “no humans required” robotaxi experience in the city. Right now, New York’s rules are so tight you need to clear three unions, a community board, and a cesspool of Karens just waiting to “F’ sh*t up” with this. But Waymo is already out here whispering sweet nothings in lawmakers' ears, hoping to convince them that Manhattan traffic would somehow improve if you took all the emotional instability out of the driver’s seat. Bold strategy, Cotton.

(Source: CNBC) 

Meanwhile, Waymo is not waiting for permission to take over market share in other states. For instance, they’re already running fully autonomous, paid rides in Phoenix, LA, Austin, and San Francisco, and plan to add Atlanta, Miami, and DC next year. Plus, they’re pulling in 250,000 paid trips a week, which is already five times what they were doing a year ago. Bigly. However, financially speaking, Alphabet’s Waymo is still parked in the “Other Bets” garage… a.k.a. a collection of moonshots that together managed to scrape up $450 million in first-quarter revenue. The bet though, is that once these robotaxis are everywhere, the cash will flow faster than a portfolio manager running from his third divorce. And yet, while investors definitely see potential… for now, the only thing slapping harder than Waymo’s U.S. expansion is the brick wall that is New York State. 

Speaking of New York, keep in mind, this is the city that once had cabbies lighting their own cars on fire over Uber’s arrival. The taxi union has more of a chokehold in Albany than most hedge funds. Plus, even Uber and Lyft are still busy dodging new for-hire vehicle caps and minimum wage mandates for drivers. Translation: Good luck convincing those guys to roll out the red carpet for an army of soulless Priuses. 

(Source: CNN) 

With that said, Waymo has driven around New York, collected data, and presumably learned that you can’t trust anyone in a Yankees cap. But that was in 2021. This time, they’re hoping that a few months of “manual testing” will grease the legislative wheels. Or, at the very least, give the robotaxis a chance to practice dodging potholes, rats, and the occasional “protests” lighting up Times Square. 

As for the rest of the robo-car mafia… they’re desperately circling the block. Amazon-owned Zoox just opened a facility to churn out 10,000 robotaxis a year, aiming for Vegas, Austin, and Miami. Tesla is hyping up (key words: “hyping up”, which means absolutely nothing) an “autonomous” service in Austin. But while these two, among other competitors, are stepping over themselves for a slice of the pie, it’s Waymo that’s leaving everyone in the dust. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Meaning, once Waymo gets its permit, expect a larger divide of market share as they send everyone who challenges them to the meat grinder. Of course, even this is all talk considering they haven’t conquered NYC yet, but when it happens, it’ll be bigly. For now though, keep your eyes on this story and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Alphabet (Google), Tesla, Uber, and Amazon as mentioned in the article.