Google plans to spin off its autonomous car segment. The move signifies the growing status of the project.

Google CEO John Krafcik said that the business is ready to "graduate" from its experimental phase and to become a standalone unit. This development may further lead to eventual spinning off of the business.

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Speaking at the Nikkei Innovation Forum in Palo Alto on Wednesday, Krafcik said that the unit is following the same path taken by Verily, a healthcare subsidiary of Alphabet. Currently, Google is looking for an appropriate name for the standalone company. Google started working on autonomous cars about eight years ago under the auspice of its X lab.

Krafcik suggested that the technology is already in an advanced stage. He said that the project is working on smoothing the last kinks before presenting the technology to the outside world.

Krafcik said that Google is not aiming to build a car, but a better driver. The company has tested its technology in extreme weather conditions. Lately, the project has faced intense competition from rivals such as Uber and Tesla. Uber recently undertook its first autonomous commercial delivery run.

The financials of the car unit are already out of X's books. Astro Teller, the head of the Google parent firm Alphabet's "X" experimental "moonshot" unit, said that the since January 1, financial operations for the autonomous vehicle unit have been out of X. While Teller did not provide the business model for self-driving cars, he stated that the cars would be sold for individual and sharing purpose.