Waymo, an autonomous vehicle company owned by Google parent Alphabet, said it is closing down its Austin operations. Waymo's small tech team of fewer than 10 employees in Austin are being offered transitions to Waymo's other operations.
"Waymo is growing our investment and teams in both the Detroit and Phoenix areas, and we want to bring our operations teams together in these locations to best support our riders and our ride-hailing service," a Waymo spokesperson wrote in a statement to Inno. "As a result we’ve decided to relocate all Austin positions to Detroit and Phoenix. We are working closely with employees, offering them the opportunity to transfer, as well as with our staffing partners to ensure everyone receives transition pay and relocation assistance."
Waymo has been ramping up its passenger ride operations in Chandler, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb Waymo started testing vehicles in around 2016. In May, Waymo announced it would offer services through the Lyft app around the Phoenix area with self-driving minivans (with safety drivers). Then, this month, it launched its service there. Meanwhile, in April, Waymo said it was planning to put final assembly off its self-driving cars in Detroit -- adding 100-400 workers in the area.
The Austin closure comes after Google and Waymo spent years testing its self-driving cars and SUVs on Austin streets -- and provided what it says is the first ever autonomous car ride for a resident. It also comes in the wake of Ford announcing it would bring its self-driving vehicles to Austin, with plans to launch self-driving taxi and delivery service as early as 2021.
Google's launch of self-driving cars in Austin came in July 2015, and it was one of the first major tech news stories Austin Inno covered.
