Supposedly. I am skeptical that Waymo will ever execute a major deal. It's a real shame, the tech is really good, but Waymo just isn't very good at business (this is true about Alphabet in general; beyond ads, and maybe cloud).
The auto makers are more than fine with incremental tech so long as it sells more cars. In some ways they may actually prefer it to the degree it accelerates upgrade cycles. Yes, there are issues with intermediate ~ Level 3 stages. But, in general, the car companies don't really care all that much about full self-driving and, arguably, would actually prefer if it hits the streets later rather than sooner.
The Waymo folks absorbed this, agreed, and said they would proceed towards full autonomy- I kind of get this, for example I don't even use cruise control and don't plan on using L3 autonomous because I worry about losing attentiveness and getting in an accident.
Whether (and you say 'arguably') they are actively preferring to slow down the rollout of full self-driving is hard to say; I think they're just cautious and don't want a few dramatic events to scuttle this promising area of research.
And there’s no guarantee at all that the incremental approach will lead to the same place in a reasonable timeframe.
So, risks all around. And people playing to their strengths.
They can hire the right people but the problem might be trust. IMO, no major car company wants to deal with Google, they'll be enslaved to Google who will tighten the screws little by little.