Waymo co-Chief Executive Officer Tekedra Mawakana said companies developing autonomous vehicles should do more to demonstrate that their technology is safe, calling for greater transparency across the industry. Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Mawakana emphasized that safety and openness must remain at the forefront as self-driving technologies move closer to large-scale deployment.
“I don’t know who’s on that list, because they’re not telling us what’s happening with their fleets,” Mawakana said when asked which companies she believes are contributing to safer roads. She highlighted Waymo’s recently released safety data, which the company says shows its vehicles are five times safer than human drivers and twelve times safer when it comes to pedestrian interactions.
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Mawakana declined to mention specific companies but noted that only a handful in the U.S. are currently pursuing robotaxi programs. Tesla, for example, publishes quarterly safety reports focused on its Autopilot driver assistance system, though these do not include data from its early robotaxi pilot in Austin, Texas. Other players such as Zoox, May Mobility, and Pony AI are in early deployment phases, while Aurora has publicly outlined its safety framework for autonomous trucking.
“I think there is a responsibility, if you’re going to put vehicles on the road, and you’re going to remove the driver from behind the wheel, and you’re going to have someone in some other room observing the fleet who can take over their vehicles, it is incumbent upon you to be transparent about what’s happening,” she said. “And if you are not being transparent, then it is my view that you are not doing what is necessary in order to actually earn the right to make the road safer.”
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Mawakana’s remarks underscore growing scrutiny over how companies measure and disclose safety performance in autonomous driving. As the sector advances toward broader commercial rollout, data transparency is increasingly seen as a key factor in earning public trust and regulatory approval.
Source: TechCrunch