Waymo's Relationship With Uber Has Reached Point Of No Return

On Sunday night, Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Waymo and Lyft announced that they were in a partnership on self-driving technology that would give Waymo access to a network of travelers and Lyft access to leading self-driving technology.

Lyft is a smaller Uber rival, having raised $600 million last month at a valuation of $7.5 billion. But it does have backing from General Motors (NYSE:GM), with which it has started testing its own self driving technology (still a fledgling effort unlike Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group).

Google started out as more of a Uber partner, being the largest investor in the ride-hailing startup and powering its service with Google Maps. By virtue of its being the largest investor, Google also had an appointee on Uber’s board. Things started souring when Google developed its own self driving technology and showed signs of piggy-backing it to enter the ride hailing business rather than licensing it to its long-time partner. That’s when David Drummond, Google’s representative on Uber’s board, retired from the position.

Since then, Google changed course, putting its automotive efforts under a company it calls Waymo and deciding to go with the licensing model after all. It’s currently testing its technology in Fiat Chrysler minivans.

So the agreement with Lyft, the details of which remain undisclosed, potentially expands the list of testing partners and also applies the technology to the kind of use for which it might be consumed in high volume. This is particularly important because there is a big race between technology firms to get the technology out there first. So not just Google, but also Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) , Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) , Baidu, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) are in the fray, developing the technology and partnering with traditional automakers to test it.

Waymo also recently took Uber to court for using its former employee Anthony Levandowski to steal files related to its self-driving technology. Uber tried and failed to move the case to arbitration after Levandowski used the Fifth Amendment to refuse testimony.

So the agreement with Lyft, which has reportedly been in the works for nearly a year, is also the final nail in the coffin as far as the Google-Uber relationship is concerned.

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