On the path to building the World’s Most Experienced Driver, we partner with some of the world’s largest automakers to realize our mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going. We focus on custom designing our hardware suite, software, and compute. We then collaborate with carmakers, leveraging their expertise in automotive design, engineering, and manufacturing, to help us create vehicles that integrate easily with the Waymo Driver, making them well-suited for ride hailing, local delivery, trucking, and personal car ownership. That’s why we’re pleased to share today our latest automotive partnership.

June marks LGBTQ+ Pride Month, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identities, relationships, and allyship. There’s no one-size-fits-all way to celebrate Pride -- it means something different to each individual. Some view it as a holiday and many of us use Pride to focus on the work that still needs to be done. At Waymo, we will celebrate Pride in several ways throughout the month and also carry it with us throughout the year, led by our LGTBQ employee resource group (ERG), the Rainbownauts.

One of the key qualities of a good driver is being able to anticipate and predict what others on the road might do. For example, what is the probability of another car merging into our lane or the cyclist in front of us making a left turn? The ability to accurately predict the intentions of other road users allows the Waymo Driver to make the safest possible decisions.

Waymo has closed an extension of the financing round announced on March 2, in which funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Perry Creek Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and other external investors participated, bringing the total size of the round to $3 billion.

There’s a lot happening with Waymo Via trucking these days. Since we kicked off our goods delivery efforts in 2017, our self-driving trucks have been fixtures on freeways across California and Arizona, our technology has become even more advanced, and our trucking team has grown rapidly. 

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the world, affecting people’s lives and forcing many businesses to suspend their operations. At Waymo, we're actively monitoring the situation, taking steps to support our local communities, and contributing to COVID-19 response efforts. While Waymo has temporarily suspended its on-the-road operations as we put the health and safety of our riders, partners, and employees first, we are still driving our technology forward with our work in simulation.