Waymo which was previously parked under Google but now under the parent company, Alphabet, has set up a subsidiary in China according to a report by Reuters. This signals the internet giant’s push into China, especially in the self-driving market. No one can deny that China is a huge market, especially so that they are behind in terms of the tech but no longer.
Set up as the Huimo Business Consulting, the company is wholly owned by Waymo and was established in Shanghai’s free trade zone. It doesn’t sound exactly like what Waymo is trying to achieve but its scope includes business and logistics consulting as well as services related to the design and testing of self-driving car parts.
This can be seen that Waymo is indeed trying to penetrate the market or perhaps going in as a different play, paving the way for a logistics play whereby parts crucial to the self-driving or autonomous vehicle’s function is manufactured in China and sold to automakers worldwide.
It still is in early stages at this time but the whole industry of autonomous vehicles is fast catching up around the world and when China wants, demand will surely skyrocket.
