As of 2017, Google/Waymo has worked on self-driving cars for eight years and has no identified path to large-scale deployment.

There are two parts: (1) by September 2017, Google/Waymo had been working on self-driving cars for about eight years (the project began around 2009); (2) as of September 2017, no path to large-scale deployment had been identified. True if the project started in 2009 (±1 year) and, as of September 2017, Waymo had no commercial service or announced concrete plan for large-scale deployment. Mostly true if part (2) holds and the duration is off by one or two years. Mixed if the duration is right but Waymo had by then publicly announced a concrete deployment plan, such as a dated driverless commercial service or a large vehicle-purchase plan, so that 'no path' is a matter of debate. Mostly false if Waymo had clearly announced, by then, specific plans and partnerships for scaled commercial deployment. False if both parts are wrong.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Waymo CTO on the company's past, present and what comes next | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 8 February 2019

   “Project Chauffeur — popularly know as the “Google self-driving car project” — kicked off in January 2009.”

2. E2 Waymo to take on Uber and Lyft with its fleet of self-driving minivans CNBC · 7 November 2017

   “Still, Waymo's corporate parent, Alphabet, has deep pockets and a strategy designed to leverage eight years of developing self-driving cars.”

3. E3 Robotaxi - Wikipedia Wikipedia

   “In early 2017, Waymo, the Google self-driving car project that became an independent company in 2016, started a large public robotaxi test in Phoenix, Arizona, using 100 and then 500 more Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans provided by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as part of a partnership between the two companies.”

4. E4 Robotaxi - Wikipedia Wikipedia

   “April 2017 – Waymo started large scale robotaxi tests in a geo-fenced suburb of Phoenix, Arizona with a driver monitoring each vehicle.”

E1 and E2 support the roughly eight-year duration, and E3 and E4 show a large public robotaxi test in Phoenix with safety drivers in 2017. No evidence item shows whether Waymo had, or had not, announced a concrete deployment plan by September 2017, and E3 does not date the addition of the 500 further minivans, so the second part of the claim cannot be settled under the criteria.