Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana believes other companies working on autonomous vehicles need to do more to prove their technology is safe. She made these comments during an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. Mawakana had just been asked which companies she considers to be making roads safer.
She responded by saying she does not know who is on that list because other companies are not sharing information about their fleets. Prioritizing safety while scaling operations was a major topic during the interview. Mawakana cited data recently released by Waymo that shows, by the company’s count, its vehicles are five times safer than human drivers and twelve times safer with respect to pedestrians.
Mawakana declined to specify if she was talking about Tesla. However, there are only a few companies in the United States currently claiming to be working on robotaxi technology. Tesla publishes quarterly vehicle safety reports. But that data focuses only on the use of its Autopilot driver assistance technology, which is designed for highways where crash rates are typically lower than on surface streets. The latest report also shows an uptick in crashes. Tesla has not released any public data about the safety of its new robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas.
Other companies in this industry are early in their deployment phase or are still testing their technology. Zoox has only just started offering rides in its purpose-built autonomous vehicle in Las Vegas, Nevada. Companies like May Mobility and Pony AI are similarly beginning their commercial operations. Aurora, the self-driving truck company, has published a safety framework.
Mawakana stated that there is a responsibility for companies to be transparent. She said if you are going to put vehicles on the road without a driver and have someone in a remote room observing the fleet, it is incumbent upon you to be transparent about what is happening. She added that if a company is not being transparent, then in her view it is not doing what is necessary to earn the right to make the roads safer.
A correction was issued noting that May Mobility has started offering commercial rides in the United States. The story was updated to reflect this fact.