Google's independent self-driving car company, Waymo, is staffing up in a big way lately. 

After a big Q2 dive in job postings  ($GOOG) self-driving car company, a big rebound of more than 56% came in the second half of 2019 at Waymo. Recent growth in job postings comes in categories including Safety, Product and Systems. 

Despite reports earlier this year that Google was looking to raise some outside capital to support Waymo's developing operations (and it's competition with General Motors' Cruise), at a valuation of $15 billion. There has been scant follow-up on that news - but separately, Morgan Stanley slashed its metrics for Waymo's valuation, saying the technology is taking longer than expected to develop. A recent Verge report points out that Waymo's car does, in fact, have autonomous driving capabilities, but that it is "not quite ready for the real world." 

Last week, the company's Chief External Officer, Tekedra N. Mawakana, said the self-driving industry was attracting too much hype - a somewhat perplexing statement - and CNBC noted the company "dialed back on its enthusiastic tone as it falls behind its original timeline." 

Within Waymo, however, there may be a different feeling - since job postings are at recent (if not all-time) highs. 

About the Data: 

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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