Waymo’s co-CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, had a transparent message throughout her interview on the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 stage Monday: “It’s crucial that we scale.”
Mawakana was talking within the context of how Waymo balances fundraising (and burning by that cash) with ultimately attaining profitability. However she was additionally clear within the interview that she believes Waymo can enhance highway security by reaching that scale.
All this helps clarify why the corporate has been on an enlargement tear this yr, and expects to launch in lots of extra U.S. cities — D.C., Miami, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, and Nashville — in addition to in London in 2026. It’s a livid tempo that has seen the autonomous automobile firm leverage a number of partnerships with the likes of firms like Uber, Lyft, and Avis.
“By the tip of 2026, it’s best to count on us to offer 1 million journeys per week,” she mentioned.
Mawakana spent a whole lot of time throughout the interview with TechCrunch Transportation Editor Kirsten Korosec speaking in regards to the challenges of safely reaching that type of scale.
The Waymo co-CEO maintained that the corporate is working at a degree that’s safer than the standard human driver. And whereas she didn’t identify names, she took a shot at rivals, saying they aren’t doing sufficient to show that their autonomous automobile expertise is actually secure.
“It’s incumbent upon [them] to be clear about what’s occurring,” she mentioned. “And if you’re not being clear, then it’s my view that you’re not doing what is important so as to really earn the correct to make the highway safer.”
Her feedback come as the corporate continues to iron out edge circumstances throughout its enlargement — with some of the latest incidents coming in Atlanta, Georgia, the place a Waymo automobile pulled out in entrance of a stopped college bus, resulting in an investigation from the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration.
Waymo itself just lately launched a report claiming its autos are already 5 occasions safer than most human drivers, and 12 occasions safer with respect to pedestrians.
Nonetheless, Waymo autos have been caught making numerous head-scratching choices.
“It’s essential to acknowledge, it’s not going to be perfection, however that doesn’t imply you shouldn’t be accountable for transparency,” Mawakana mentioned on stage. “I believe…we actually fear as an organization about these days. You already know, we don’t say whether or not, we are saying when, and we plan for them.”
Mawkana additionally mentioned Waymo doesn’t suppose when it comes to “what number of [incidents] are allowable.”
“We all know they’re going to occur as a result of our vehicles are on the highway with people, and sadly, proper now, the state of the roads and the state of human driving is there may be a whole lot of deaths, and there are a whole lot of accidents being triggered on the roadways,” she mentioned.
And when requested whether or not the general public would settle for a loss of life attributable to a robotaxi within the face of the promise of larger security, Mawakana mentioned: “I believe that society will.”
