TechCrunch Mobility: Is $16B enough to build a profitable robotaxi business?

The article from TechCrunch Mobility examines whether a $16 billion investment is sufficient to build a profitable robotaxi business, focusing primarily on Waymo’s recent progress and challenges. Waymo, owned by Alphabet, has rapidly expanded its commercial robotaxi services across six U.S. cities and plans to enter over a dozen international markets, including London and Tokyo. Alphabet’s strong financial backing differentiates Waymo from many autonomous vehicle (AV) startups that have struggled with funding. Despite impressive growth in ridership—offering 400,000 rides weekly and tripling annual volume to 15 million rides in 2025—Waymo still faces significant hurdles to profitability, including high operational costs, regulatory scrutiny, and the challenge of balancing technology licensing with direct operation of services. Additionally, unlike Tesla, Waymo lacks in-house vehicle manufacturing, which limits its ability to reduce costs at scale. Beyond robotaxis, the article highlights that autonomous vehicle technology is expanding into other sectors such as defense, trucking, mining,