Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car unit was the first to launch a commercial robo-taxi service, picking up and dropping off paying passengers. And its technology is considered by people in the industry to be more advanced. But it has a smaller workforce than either of its two best-funded rivals in the U.S., Uber’s autonomous unit and General Motors’ Cruise, new data show.
Waymo has 950 employees, known internally as “Waymonauts,” while Uber’s autonomous vehicle division now has around 1,100 and Cruise has a little over 1,000. The relatively small size of Waymo’s workforce is one of the more striking details to emerge from our updated analysis of Waymo’s org chart. Also noteworthy: After the recent hires of two senior women, Waymo CEO John Krafcik’s 10-person executive team is half female. That’s a notable ratio compared to other, more male-dominated tech or auto companies.