Google launched its first self-driving car project in 2009, the program that later became Waymo.
The project began at Google X on January 17, 2009, under the leadership of Sebastian Thrun and Anthony Levandowski. Its early technology drew on work by Stanford researchers and vehicles developed for the DARPA Grand Challenges, including the autonomous cars Stanley and Junior.
Google initially tested modified Toyota Prius vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project became public in 2010 and gradually expanded to other vehicles, cities, and more complex driving conditions. By 2015, Google's vehicles had driven more than one million autonomous miles in testing.
A common mix-up is confusing the project's 2009 start with the Waymo name. Google created the self-driving program in 2009, but the company adopted the Waymo name in December 2016 after the project became an Alphabet subsidiary.