[vl]

Or maybe they know Waymo is there to burn through cash without doing anything useful (like any other “research” project at any place that has infinite stream of money from oil or, let’s say, ads) and expect it to be overtaken by competition and want to get out.

[halflings]

All research projects from Google (and similar companies with "infinite stream of money") aren't doing anything useful? Seems overly cynical.

They're at least responsible for a large chunk of ML research, which is directly to directly improve their products (Maps, Photos, YouTube, etc.).