Waymo's co-CEO on building trust, refusing shortcuts, and why full autonomy was the only safe bet
Tekedra Mawakana joined Waymo after roughly a year of recruiting and a deliberate leap of faith—stepping from leading a team across five continents to a team of one. Her framing of that decision, "if it doesn't terrify you, it's probably not worth it," runs as a through-line in the conversation. She became co-CEO in 2021, one of very few Black women in that role at a major tech company.
The core safety argument is empirical: 1.2 million people die on roads globally each year, and Waymo's own data shows a 13x reduction in serious injury-causing crashes versus human drivers in its operating areas. Critically, Waymo abandoned the autopilot/handoff model as early as 2013 after an internal experiment revealed employees were shaving and applying makeup while expected to stay alert—demonstrating that partial automation creates dangerous over-trust. The company concluded it had to build a fully autonomous driver or nothing at all.
On safety culture, Tekedra is explicit: it cannot be retrofitted. It must be embedded in software release frameworks, multi-channel reporting, and leadership behavior from day one. The recent San Antonio flood recall—a vehicle drove into flooded water and was swept away—is offered as a live example of the approach: rapid, transparent, proactive engagement with NHTSA rather than defensiveness.
The competitive and strategic picture is nuanced. Waymo frames itself as building the driver, not the vehicle—a generalizable platform applicable to ride-hailing, delivery, and long-haul trucking. That stands in contrast to Tesla's consumer-ownership model. Expansion is deliberately paced by regulatory readiness and two hard technical limits: heavy-snow climates and cities whose regulators aren't yet prepared, even where the technology could otherwise launch.
On labor displacement, Tekedra acknowledges the concern directly but leans on early data—San Francisco saw 7% demand growth and 14% wage growth for human drivers in Waymo's first year—while funding undisclosed studies on broader impact. Partnerships with Bronx Community College and TechForce aim to retrain workers, though the host's pointed concern stands: the Uber driver who loses a job today may not be the same person who becomes a fleet technician tomorrow. The bottom line, per Tekedra: "It takes a long time to earn trust, not a long time to lose it."
Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, traces the company's path from a frightening career leap to operating a fully driverless fleet at scale. She makes the case that safety, transparency, and regulatory patience—not speed—are Waymo's true competitive advantages. The conversation also wrestles honestly with the human costs of automation and the road ahead.
trust that small voice that is telling you that everything you've done has prepared you for this
Changes in sensor count between Waymo Driver generations are about costing down the product while keeping capability the same, not reducing safety
Widespread autonomous driving in the US faces two primary obstacles: technology readiness in heavy-snow climates and unready regulatory frameworks in cities where the technology could otherwise launch
Tekedra graduated law school in 1996, the same year as the 1996 Telecoms Act.
Waymo was recruiting Tekedra for approximately one year before she agreed to join.
When Tekedra joined Waymo, she went from leading a team across five continents to leading a team of one.
Tekedra was named co-CEO of Waymo in 2021, making her one of very few Black female CEOs.
1.2 million people are killed globally on roadways annually.
Waymo is currently showing a 13 times reduction in serious injury-causing crashes compared to human drivers in the same areas where Waymo is operating.
Waymo partnered with organizations including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Safety Council to build community trust and advance road safety.
Just last week, Waymo issued a recall after a vehicle drove into a flooded roadway in San Antonio and was swept away.
Tesla sells self-driving-capable cars to consumers starting at approximately thirty-seven thousand dollars with a subscription add-on, while Waymo owns and operates its own fleet with cars costing upwards of a hundred thousand dollars.
In 2012, Waymo ran an internal autopilot experiment where employees were asked to remain alert and take over when needed, but employees instead used the time to put on makeup, shave, and do other tasks, demonstrating they trusted the technology beyond its capability.
Waymo removed the human from our fleets in October of 2020
the sixth gen Waymo Driver cut the number of cameras from 29 to 13, and went from five LiDAR to four
demand for people being driven in San Francisco grew 7%, and wages grew 14% for cab drivers and limo drivers in Waymo's first year in San Francisco
Waymo is funding studies on autonomous vehicles' impact on jobs that are not yet ready to be disclosed
In cities where Waymo technologically could launch, it isn't launching because the regulators aren't ready
Fleet operating partners have been able to take logistics specialists and drivers and move them into depot managers, fleet operators, and people dispatched to manage jobs on an ad hoc basis
Waymo's world model contains all of the LiDAR data accumulated since before October 2020 and there is no reason to short-circuit that data
Waymo is using an organization called TechForce to take traditional mechanic roles and turn them into autonomous mechanics
In a 10-to-20-year horizon people will have decided if they want to keep driving or buy cars that drive them, and cities could redeploy transportation planning budgets of tens of millions of dollars into other services
what would it take for people to trust technology, given that every person I'd ever met would say to me, 'My cell phone constantly drops. How is this gonna work?'
We don't want to be in the situation where we're inviting people to unplug from the driving task and then expecting them to take over at a really, really urgent moment.
For cities with significant snow for many months of the year, the Waymo Driver is still at an early part of deploying in those conditions
the Uber driver who loses their job today may not be the same person who becomes a fleet technician in the future
Safety cannot be built retroactively; it must be embedded in software release frameworks, reporting mechanisms, multiple channels for raising concerns, and modeled in leadership decision-making.
Waymo is building the driver, not the vehicle; the Waymo Driver is designed to be generalizable across ride-hailing, local delivery, Class 8 long-haul trucking, and licensed personally owned cars.
To position yourself for senior leadership: know your craft, constantly keep learning, know yourself deeply including your relationship with ambiguity, hierarchy, and communication.
Waymo uses a multimodal, multi-sense sensor system of LiDAR, camera, and radar rather than a bet solely on LiDAR
Jobs are gonna go away, jobs are gonna change, and jobs are gonna be here tomorrow that were not here yesterday
Waymo's competitive advantage is built on safety discipline and humility rather than speed of deployment or planting flags before competitors
In the early days, Waymo took cardboard virtual reality goggles to Congress to help legislators imagine the experience of riding in a self-driving car.
In responding to the San Antonio flood incident, Waymo engaged quickly, transparently, and proactively with NHTSA, which governs recalls.
Beginning in early 2013, Waymo decided to pursue only fully autonomous driving and abandon the autopilot/handoff model after observing that people over-trusted partial automation.
Waymo has a partnership with Bronx Community College to teach the next generation of trade specialists how to work in the autonomous space
In Los Angeles, Waymo provided a credit for people who were coming from public transit into a Waymo, or vice versa
Waymo built a honk feature into its app so vision-impaired riders can honk and hear their way to the vehicle
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