Although the stock of Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is up a healthy 34% on the year, its self-driving-car unit, Waymo, has had a bit of a rocky start to 2021. Waymo's former CEO, John Krafcik, just resigned in early April, and six other top executives have followed him out the door.
A few years ago, several self-driving-car executives predicted we would all be riding around in autonomous taxis by now. However, things haven't gone quite as planned. Leading ride-sharing platforms including Uber and Lyft even threw in the towel, selling their autonomous research units over the past few months. Many now say it could be decades before the promise of self-driving tech is realized, if at all.
So, should Alphabet investors chalk up Waymo as a bust? Or is there still hope for it to be a meaningful contributor to Alphabet's future?
Source Fool.com