Google has announced that it is setting up an independent company within the Alphabet umbrella. The new company called "Waymo" would be focused on making self-driving cars.

The self-driving car project, started by Google in 2009, derives its name from Google's mission to find new ways of improving mobility.

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At a press event in San Francisco on Dec 13, Waymo CEO John Krafcik told the audience that the Waymo team had conducted the first driverless ride on public roads in Austin last year.

Steve Mahan, a legally blind friend of Waymo principal engineer Nathaniel Fairfield, sat in the car solo with no police assistance and rode on city streets in everyday traffic including four-way stops, pedestrians, and narrow streets. After a ride in the car with no steering wheel and pedals, Mahan told he felt like a terrestrial astronaut and called himself "rider 1."

Google X and Waymo have been working non-stop on the driverless car technology for years. According to Tech Crunch, they have already driven around three million miles on roads and over a billion in simulation. Around ten thousand trips have been taken with Googlers and guests around places like Austin, Mountain View and Phoenix.

Commenting on what more is to come, Waymo's head of self-driving technology Dmitri Dolgov mentioned the possibility of building better maps, making smoother rides, and improving navigation during weather like rain and snow. According to Krafcik, the technology can be used in transportation, trucking, ridesharing, logistics, public transport, and even for personal use.

Krafcik emphasized that the new company would be more focused on technology rather than cars themselves. "We're not in the business of making better cars. We're in the business of making better drivers," he said.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Alphabet's newly independent autonomous car company is going to team up with Chrysler to bring ride-sharing service to semi-self-driving Pacifica vans as early as by the end of 2017.