Sep 18, 2024 · 30m · allin
Tekedra Mawakana | All-In Summit 2024
Tekedra Mawakana · 16m spoken Jason Calacanis · 4m spoken Chamath Palihapitiya · 3m spoken David Friedberg · 1m spoken David Sacks · 1m spoken
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In an interview at the All-In Summit 2024, Waymo Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana discusses Waymo's operational scale, safety performance data, Level 4 multi-sensor strategy, and long-term ecosystem commercialization goals.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 38% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 3.6 Guest teaching 4.0 Guest disagreement 1.3 The hosts pushing back 3.3
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 21:02 Refusing to confirm vehicle cost rumors
When Calacanis and Sacks push rumored $125,000-$150,000 car costs onto her, Mawakana repeatedly refuses to take the bait, lightheartedly teasing the hosts for trying to read her like poker players.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 20:53 Tag-team pressing on unit costs and breaking pointsFriedberg, Calacanis, and Sacks repeatedly interrupt and bait Mawakana in tandem to force her into revealing hardware costs and unit economic profitability thresholds.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:38 Explaining why Level 2 human distraction fails safety goalsWhen Calacanis questions the necessity of LiDAR compared to vision-only human eyes, Mawakana cites internal 2015 Google tests showing humans inevitably disengage when asked to supervise partial autonomy.
The host holds their own ▶ 20:32 Friedberg breaks down fleet utilization and economic tipping pointsFriedberg demonstrates deep domain expertise by laying out the exact math behind fleet utilization, peak rush-hour demand vs idle off-peak inventory, and capital costs.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tekedra Mawakana Stage Welcome and Scale Milestones | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Friedberg welcomes Mawakana and confirms basic stats regarding Waymo achieving over 100,000 paid rides per week and securing recent Alphabet funding. Mawakana outlines Waymo's trajectory from Google X through driver removal in 2020. | |
| Waymo Safety Data and Crash Reduction Metrics | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Calacanis asks why Waymo prioritized dense urban driving over freeways, prompting Mawakana to explain how Level 4 autonomous systems learn faster in complex urban environments. Palihapitiya and Calacanis verify safety metrics against human baseline statistics. | |
| The Multi-Sensor Suite and Driver Distraction Lessons | 4 | 6 | 1 | 3 | Calacanis questions the need for expensive LiDAR versus vision-only camera setups. Mawakana educates the hosts on Google's 2015 autopilot tests, which revealed that requiring human supervision on partial autonomy leads to dangerous driver distraction. | |
| Scaling Fleet Operations and Strategic Partnerships | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Sacks asks whether scaling robotaxis will eventually eliminate Uber, but Mawakana explains their partnership model and why building an AV ecosystem requires specialized fleet and network operators. Palihapitiya inquires about city grid complexity. | |
| Insurance Industry Collaboration and Data Insights | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Palihapitiya asks about insurance industry collaboration, while Calacanis presses on the regulatory fallout from Cruise's safety scandal in San Francisco. Mawakana highlights Swiss Re research and emphasizes Waymo's culture of transparency. | |
| Unit Economics, Fleet Commercialization, and OEM Licensing | 6 | 3 | 3 | 7 | The hosts tag-team to question Mawakana on unit economics, rumored vehicle hardware costs, and fleet profitability tipping points. Mawakana playfully deflects specific cost figures while confirming long-term plans to offer Waymo technology via OEMs. | |
| Global Expansion Strategy and All-Weather Capabilities | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | Calacanis pushes Mawakana on why Waymo does not open-source its software stack like Android, which Mawakana dismisses. She then details Waymo's all-weather testing across 25 cities, including fog, heavy rain, and sandstorms. | |
| Leadership Pressure, Mission-Driven Culture, and Conclusion | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Palihapitiya asks about executive pressure and culture when human lives are at stake. Mawakana explains the mission-driven intensity of her team, leading Palihapitiya to praise her clarifying framing of building 'one driver'. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Mawakana: Waymo completes over 100,000 paid rides weekly
“It's completely true. And it's over a 100,000. Per week, yeah.”
Mawakana: Waymo has operated 24/7 driverless ride-hailing since 2020 in three markets
“A lot of people don't realize we've had a 24 seven ride hailing service around the clock. It was in 2020 during COVID though. That we removed the driver from behind the wheel. So we have the WeMo driver that's driving the vehicles at all time, but there's no h…”
Mawakana: Waymo has 73% fewer injury crashes than human drivers
“What we've been able to determine as of June of this year with over twenty-two million, what we refer to as RO miles, those are miles that are fully autonomous. We've been able to have 83% fewer airbag deployments, which of course is important because those ar…”
Mawakana: Waymo is exclusively focused on Level 4 autonomy and above
“We are only focused on level four and above level four and above means you do not need a driver's license, nor do you need to sit behind the wheel.”
Mawakana: Highway miles don't improve Waymo's AI like urban driving does
“Sitting on freeway, seeing the same thing every day can be predictable. It's not entirely predictable, but it's not additive to what the machine learns.”
Mawakana: Waymo has 'conviction' it requires LiDAR, radar, and cameras
“So obviously we have conviction that we need LIDAR, radar, and cameras.”
Mawakana: Waymo is the only company operating Level 4 autonomy 24/7
“We're the only company that's doing level four driving on public roads, 24 hours a day.”
Mawakana: Waymo can't become profitable by building everything in-house
“We have the partnership with Uber because we think it's important for us to create an AV ecosystem around this technology. Like, this isn't going to be, we've created technology and we're going to figure out everything ourselves. Like, that would be foolish an…”
Mawakana: Waymo drives more in a week than a human in a lifetime
“The, you know, we drive in a week more than a human drives in a lifetime.”
Mawakana: Cruise safety incident led to more AV scrutiny in SF
“It definitely led to more scrutiny in San Francisco because there was already an active and continues to be a fairly active voice against technology in San Francisco”
Mawakana: One-third of Waymo's San Francisco riders use it for doctor visits
“We just did a UX study, and we found that a third of people use the service in San Francisco to go to their doctor appointments.”
Mawakana: 36% of Waymo's San Francisco rides are to local businesses
“36% were using, The vehicles to go to local businesses”
Mawakana: Waymo technology will eventually be sold in consumer cars
“We've always had as part of our strategy from the beginning that we would start with ride hailing and local delivery and that eventually we would make our technology available to automotive companies so that this, you know, at some point you'll find Waymo cars…”
Mawakana: Waymo is not currently considering open-sourcing its technology
“So on the question of open sourcing, that isn't something that we're spending a lot of time talking about right now.”
Mawakana: Waymo's SF fleet operated through severe storms without downtime
“We've tested across 25 cities specifically for that, so we had massive storms in San Francisco last year. And we didn't take down the fleet, like our fleet was able to handle all of the rain.”