Tekedra Mawakana

The mission of driverless taxi company Waymo is downright audacious, says co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana: “to be the world's most trusted driver, and at the same time, do something that's never been done before.” The company was the first to expand AI-driven taxis into major metropolitan areas, starting with San Francisco and Phoenix, and this year expanding into the largest yet—Los Angeles. It’s focused on Austin after that.

The company has raised $5 billion in the past year to remake the global taxi industry. In August, Waymo announced that it was operating 100,000 paid rides every week. But the potential liability is also huge. Since July 2021, the company has had around 150 crashes, and this summer recalled the software in all of its vehicles after one of its cars crashed into a pole in Arizona. 
Accidents caused by human drivers seldom make headlines, of course. Waymo points out that in the over 7 million miles their vehicles have traveled, only three accidents resulted in injury. Since early 2023, the company has published more than 20 safety papers, including data showing their artificially intelligent “Waymo drivers” have an 85% reduction in crashes involving injuries compared with human drivers on the same roads. Mawakana is betting those statistics will sink in. “The safer we can make the roads,” she says, “the more we're delivering on our audacious mission as a company.”