Neal Freiman

My Stock of the Week is Waymo, because if you can't already hail a robo-taxi to take you home from the bar, it's probably Newton...

My stock of the week is Waymo, because if you can't already hail a robo-taxi to take you home from the bar, it's probably not too far off.

The self-driving company is barnstorming the United States like a 19th century baseball team, announcing it had opened limited public rides in four more cities in Texas and Florida, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando.

For those counting at home, that means Waymo now has a self-driving fleet of cars in 10 major U.S.

metros, with those four joining Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas.

And look out, Midwest.

Waymo is coming for you.

On Wednesday, it said it's laying the early groundwork for operations in Chicago, the first time Waymo would be venturing into a cold-weather city that has complex, often snowy driving conditions.

It's pretty clear that a quiet self-driving revolution is now underway, with Waymo leaving its rivals in the dust.

Go back to last year, and the Google-owned company was doing 200,000 paid rides per week in just three cities, SFLA and Phoenix.

At the end of last year, it was 400,000 in six cities, and by the end of 2026, it's aiming for 1 million rides per week in at least 10, probably more cities.

The money has followed.

Earlier this month, Waymo raised $16 billion at a valuation of $126 billion, leading to speculation that at some point, Google's going to spin this giant off.

Well, OK, wedding.

I love weddings, loves wedding songs.

And this might be a I don't like Cake by the Ocean.

I think that is overplayed.

OK, but there's another overplayed song that I really do love gets me out there.

And this is just off the top of my head.

Uptown Funk.