Like a robotaxi slowly advancing down a street to approach its destination, Alphabet (GOOG 2.42%) (GOOGL 2.40%) stock advanced on Hump Day. Its two share classes both rose in excess of 2% in price during the trading session, on the back of good news for one of its businesses. That bump higher was good enough to beat the flat S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.00%) on the day.
New day, new city
That Alphabet business posting the positive development was its accelerating robotaxi service, Waymo. On Tuesday, in partnership with ride-sharing incumbent Uber Technologies, the company rolled out Waymo in Atlanta.
Image source: Getty Images.
The Georgia metropolis now becomes the fifth metropolitan area serviced by Waymo (the others are San Francisco and the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin). Alphabet doesn't plan on slamming the brakes on the project anytime soon, as it aims to Waymo Washington, D.C., and Miami next year.
The combination of a widening footprint and positive word-of-mouth has boosted Waymo's popularity -- and its ridership. According to recent reporting from Barron's, these days the service is providing over 250,000 rides per week. That's more than double the 100,000 from last year at around this time.
With the Atlanta launch, Alphabet extends its lead over ever-ambitious electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla. That company launched its Robotaxi brand in Austin this past weekend; however, it was limited only to a select group of hand-picked users.
A good Way(mo) forward
Both Alphabet's development and rollout of Waymo feels as if they have been well planned and smoothly executed. In Los Angeles, for example, now it's common to see Waymos ferrying customers around the car-clogged city. While robotaxis aren't yet a massive business for Alphabet, they're looking like they'll become an important revenue generator sooner than many might expect
