<P> Waymo is an autonomous car development company spun out of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., in December 2016 . It then took over the self - driving car project which Google had begun in 2009 . Alphabet describes Waymo as "a self - driving tech company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around". The new company, which will be headed by long - time automotive executive John Krafcik, is working towards making self - driving cars available to the public soon . From the company's FAQ: </P> <P> Our next step will be to let people trial fully self - driving cars to do everyday things like run errands or commute to work . </P> <P> Google's self driving car project was formerly led by Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View . Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US $2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense . The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges . </P> <P> In October 2010, an attorney for the California Department of Motor Vehicles raised concerns that "(t) he technology is ahead of the law in many areas", citing state laws that "all presume to have a human being operating the vehicle". </P>

When was the first google self driving car invented