Waymo will stop selling its self-driving LiDAR sensors to other companies

Just months after a CEO shakeup, Waymo is officially halting sales of its custom sensors to third parties. The move sees the Alphabet-owned self-driving company unwinding a business operation just two years into its lifespan. Waymo confirmed the decision to

Reuters

, adding that it’s now focusing on deploying its Waymo Driver tech across its Waymo One ride-hailing and Waymo Via

trucking divisions.

The decision comes in the wake of long-term

CEO John Krafcik’s departure

, who was replaced at the helm by Waymo execs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov. Some suggested

that Krafcik’s deliberate approach was hindering the company’s push toward commercialization. Earlier this month, Waymo hit a milestone of 20 billion miles

driven in simulations, with 20 million on public roads. Just days ago, it brought its robotaxis to vetted riders in San Francisco

.

Waymo

began selling

LiDARs — the tech that measures distance with pulses of laser light — to companies barring its autonomous vehicle rivals in 2019. It initially planned to sell its short-range sensor (known as Laser Bear Honeycomb) to businesses in the robotics, security and agricultural technology sectors. A form

on its website also lists drones, mapping and entertainment as applicable industries.

Waymo’s fifth-generation Driver technology uses an array of sensors — including radar, lidar, and cameras — to help its cars “see” 360 degrees during the day and night, and even in tough weather conditions such as rain or fog. While its simulated and real world driving tests have helped it to amass a massive dataset that is crunched using machine learning-based software. According to anonymous sources cited by Reuters , Waymo intends to use in-house tech and external suppliers for its next-gen LiDARs.

Editor’s note: *This post originally appeared on *

Engadget

.