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Waymo ‘Really Close’ to Putting Customers in Self-Driving Cars

October 31, 2017

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Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo unit demonstrated a self-driving minivan with no one behind the wheel, declaring the vehicle as ready for public use.

“It’s safe to say we’re really close, but I don’t want to put a date on it,” John Krafcik, Waymo’s CEO, told reporters at the company’s testing site in central California. “We want to get this car out on public roads.”

The race is on to jump from the lab to the highway and offer the first self-driving vehicle for public use. Waymo pioneered the technology but is facing competition as giants from General Motors Co. to Apple Inc. spend billions of dollars to catch up. Now, Krafcik is seeking to reassert Waymo’s primacy with a push to make the company synonymous with autonomous cars in the public mind.

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