To see how autonomous cars have evolved, perhaps it is best to see what Waymo has done with the cars that they have used to offer his services.
In its origins, the company “created” very special cars to test its technologies, and put them on the road to cover the maximum number of kilometers and thus obtain experiences of use. And that happened over a few years where they spent developing their technology while doing millions of miles and getting more real experiences.
When it began offering self-driving taxi services paid for by customers, it struck a deal with Chrysler to use its Pacifica model, which was a hybrid vehicle. And although they signed an agreement with the company to acquire 60,000 vehicles, after many years they have barely acquired around 1,000, and most of them have been used in the Arizona area.
Waymo later evolved and went on to buy a fully electric car, the Jaguar model I-Pace as the platform for its fifth generation of autonomous car, which is the one that is currently being used the most, and Waymo has recently announced that it is going to cease the activity of Chrysler models, to use only Jaguar's all-electric cars.
We have to consider that in an autonomous car the availability of a car is essential, and that is why Waymo started with Chrysler hybrid cars that filled up with gasoline in a short time. Well, at that time (year 2018) there were not many places to recharge electric cars.
Time has passed, and today (5 years later) electric cars are a palpable reality, charging points have increased and will continue to increase, and customers are more sensitive to using non-polluting cars. Something that almost all of Waymo's competitors in this sector also do.
And I think that is why all the autonomous car operators offer their services with fully electric cars, to convey a message of modernity, ecological travel, etc…. although at the moment all of them continue to operate with losses in their income statements.
When will that change ? I doubt if anyone knows. The taxi market in the cities is huge, but the economic strain on companies (Waymo and others) to be there waiting for the situation to change is also huge.
As in so many things, time will tell us.
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