Waymo Driverless Car

Self-driving unit Waymo reported Tuesday night that it is now delivering 150,000 paid trips each week, for a total of one million weekly autonomous miles.

The details: “The future is here,” Waymo said, “it’s growing, and it’s taking riders safely to their destinations every day.”

The expansion comes just two months after Waymo announced that it was delivering 100,000 paid trips each week, then a massive milestone.

It also comes very shortly after Waymo closed a massive $5.6 billion funding round — led by parent company Google — which it will use to continue expanding its operations.

As of September, Waymo had a total fleet of 700 driverless cars, each equipped with a stack of sensors and technology; a single Waymo has been reported to cost around $200,000.

While Waymo has shared details on 22 million driverless miles — which it claims were safer than humans over that same distance — it is not at all clear if that safety will scale up as Waymo does so.

What is clear is that Waymo is far ahead of the competition. By the time Tesla gets a robotaxi out there — if it ever manages to do so — Waymo may well possess entrenched dominance in the sector.