Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on how to get self-driving taxis to the mall

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business, Technology

4.2 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Waymo is working on self-driving taxis. Which is a huge deal. Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft have remade cities, allowed people to give up their cars, and generally connected the buttons you push on your phone to real things happening in the world more directly than almost any other app. Nilay Patel talked to Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, about expanding Waymo’s service to other cities, the hurdles in place, and how she thinks the company will make money over time. We also talked about the regulatory issues the industry faces as it tries to roll out self-driving more broadly, and whether things like Tesla’s “full self driving” are confusing the issue or helping it. This was a really fun conversation made even better because we recorded it live, on stage at Code Conference. Links: Meet the self-driving brains working with Tesla and Ford https://www.theverge.com/22627847/argo-ai-bryan-salesky-decoder-interview-lyft-self-driving Ford CEO Jim Farley on building the electric F-150 -- and reinventing Ford https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/20/22444294/ford-f150-lightning-pickup-truck-jim-farley-interview Waymo CEO John Krafcik steps down, replaced by two co-CEOs https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/2/22364317/waymo-ceo-john-krafcik-stepping-down-self-driving-cars-google-alphabet Riding in Waymo One, the Google spin-off’s first self-driving taxi service https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/5/18126103/waymo-one-self-driving-taxi-service-ride-safety-alphabet-cost-app Waymo starts offering autonomous rides in San Francisco https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/24/22639226/waymo-san-francisco-rides-self-driving-service Tesla opens ‘Full Self-Driving’ beta software to more customers https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/26/22693610/tesla-opens-full-self-driving-beta-software-more-customers Waymo’s self-driving cars are now available on Lyft’s app in Phoenix https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18536003/waymo-lyft-self-driving-ride-hail-app-phoenix Google is spinning off its self-driving car program into a new company called Waymo https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/13/13936782/google-self-driving-car-waymo-spin-off-company Car companies will have to report automated vehicle crashes under new rules https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/29/22555666/nhtsa-autonomous-vehicle-crash-report-data Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/22472717 Credits: Host - Nilay Patel Lead Producer - Creighton DeSimone Associate Producer - Alexander Charles Adams Sr Audio Director - Andrew Marino Editor - Callie Wright Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:05.1	Hello and welcome to Decoder. I'm the LiPetel Editor in Chief of the Verge,
1:09.3	and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. This episode of Decoder
1:15.2	is a little bit different. We're sharing the interview I did on stage at the
1:19.0	Code Conference with Tequidra Mawakana, the co-CEO of Waymo.
1:24.1	This was a live interview in front of a live audience, and I have to say I loved it.
1:28.0	It was extremely fun to talk to someone in person after a year of podcasting
1:33.9	from my basement. So that's the setup. But let's talk about Waymo. Waymo is working
1:39.9	on self-driving taxis, which is a huge deal. Now, for all, take a step back.
1:46.7	Have you ever thought about how easy it is to make a Toyota Camry appear?
1:52.2	But most people can just summon a Toyota Camry at will and get a ride to where they want to go.
1:58.2	Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft have remade cities with this capability.
2:02.7	They've allowed people to give up their cars and generally connected the buttons you push on your
2:07.6	phone to real things happening in the world, more directly than almost any other app.
	...

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