What if we could solve the problem of fatal car accidents? Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana joins TED’s Sal Khan to explore why fully autonomous vehicles (where you never have to touch the wheel) are more than a tech novelty — they could help end the dangerous status quo. (Recorded at TED2026 on April 15, 2026)
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@doubleuenbeeeh
May 25, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Why does Sal Khan’s uncle need to work at all, let alone drive your Uber?
@ohemmehey561
May 25, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Waymo and AI will destroy us all. This lady is no friend of humanity .
@QasimAlKhuzaie
May 25, 2026 at 1:22 pm
All sunshine and rainbows until you look for someone to hold accountable
@davethestoner
May 25, 2026 at 1:43 pm
have you not seen the driverless cars all stacking up and blocking each other in america? its brilliant to watch! Just another means of control isnt it.
@ForAnAngel
May 25, 2026 at 3:19 pm
No because that doesn’t happen.
@rizzlethegreat9682
May 25, 2026 at 4:45 pm
@ForAnAngelyes it does. The videos are available on all social media platforms.
@ForAnAngel
May 25, 2026 at 6:55 pm
@rizzlethegreat9682 Ok, do you think it is impossible for them to fix it?
@vatsalrohilla5878
May 25, 2026 at 1:47 pm
Try it on Indian roads.
@joeroche552
May 25, 2026 at 1:59 pm
And if you enjoy driving?
@rizzlethegreat9682
May 25, 2026 at 4:46 pm
They’ll say go to a racetrack.
@MiaBurdick
May 25, 2026 at 2:04 pm
I would love them to dig more into the statistical framework used to understand if this would actually be applicable to a vast population. Too many times are statistics cited without enough vetting of methodology and assumptions that could hinder its reliability. I understand the sample size is large but I expect more on the explanation if we are using this as the main crux for fully automating transportation
@jjrod80
May 25, 2026 at 3:00 pm
Statistics can also be manipulated to fit any narratic someone wants.
@rizzlethegreat9682
May 25, 2026 at 4:42 pm
There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned lies, and Statistics. Look for who gathered all of the data and what their motivation was.
@VFL0519
May 25, 2026 at 2:07 pm
Remember when society had a safety net? In case everything else feel through you could still UBER to make ends meet. Not anymore. What’s left? Selling things and crime?
@wynnejulius2251
May 25, 2026 at 2:07 pm
Constantly promoting incompetent people. All tech fail as time pass. What happens when this tech fails. Guess the current shareholders would have sold the shares by then. The world want less tech not more.
@MichiganUSASingaporeSEAsia
May 25, 2026 at 2:07 pm
A nice marketing ploy for something that’s bad with unintended consequences
@jjrod80
May 25, 2026 at 2:59 pm
I think someone needs to create an AI that can do the job of a ceo. Then we’ll see how quick they are to praise this bullshit tech. And these morons keep pushing safety statistics as if they actually care about safety. This is about profit and not having to pay employees, pure and simple.
@Indianadixon
May 25, 2026 at 3:04 pm
Boooo waymo!
@Indianadixon
May 25, 2026 at 3:05 pm
I agree with Dax Flame, I’d feel “way mo” safe if these self-driving cars weren’t on the road
@Indianadixon
May 25, 2026 at 3:06 pm
Has way mo ever heard of a thing called a subway? Or a metro?
@J_aayyy
May 25, 2026 at 3:20 pm
I reported this for misleading thumbnail. these don’t exist. saying something that doesn’t exist is safer…. such crap. These will never work in winter in snow.
@snackgobblin
May 25, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Gross.
@wags2413
May 25, 2026 at 4:08 pm
They don’t like to talk about how much money they’re losing. I believe it’s over 13 billion dollars, and counting. Sorta like Uber who didn’t turn a profit for nearly 10 years. Meantime they are devastating local economies and destroying the lives of small business owners. Where’s all those billions of dollars coming from? Saudi Arabia, Russia, tech multi billionaires. Are you comfortable with these people as overlords? And who isn’t going to buy their cheap junk when the middle class is gone? What kind of “capitalism” is this?
@Illiteratechimp
May 25, 2026 at 4:11 pm
False.
Think about it: how can that possibly be true when billionaires have made sure there is no accountability?
Driverless cars will continue running over kids and give billionaires yet greater and greater excuses to redesign our cities and towns to be even LESS friendly to humans.
If we allow this scourge to continue, we will be forced off of our crosswalks and even sidewalks in favor of heartless speed machines with 0 accountability.
Resist the tech bros.
Say no to driverless cars.
Arrest the CEOs for their many murders.
@amanimaniac
May 25, 2026 at 4:48 pm
I’ve seen too many videos of these cars running red lights, driving the wrong way on the street, making left turns from the right lane (in traffic), driving into a blocked off construction area and just circling because it can’t find the way out, and so many more. The best is when they all try to leave their home parking lot at the same time in the morning and just end up honking at each other. Starting to see more videos of passengers contacting support in the car for these fiascos, only to find they are (probably) speaking to an overseas customer service person who can’t halp and wastes time before transfering to someone that has some tech access and can see what’s going on. Then they still can’t figure it out. One guy got so fed up, he just got out and walked away. This may have a place in the future, when everything is straight lines and grids, but the tech is nowhere near adaptive enough to navigate urban areas effectively.
@RebeccaMorris-v6m
May 25, 2026 at 4:51 pm
The ‘driverless’ cars we have now are remote controlled by people in India who don’t have a driver’s license! What’s worse is trusting a computer more that is consistently proving itself harmful and untrustworthy.
@llicit1833
May 25, 2026 at 4:54 pm
10X safer (36,000 lives saved in US alone)
Opens up a lot of time for more productive / entertaining things
Lots of public spaces freed up from just being parking spaces
Sounds pretty positive to me – probably had similar pushback when transitioning from horse and buggy to cars in the first place
@owhite2445
May 25, 2026 at 5:07 pm
wait till bro hears about trains
@owhite2445
May 25, 2026 at 5:00 pm
society is SO NOT in the mood for these oligarch tech freaks.
havent you all ruined the world enough already?
@Richyray76522
May 25, 2026 at 5:36 pm
And when AI goes off the rails? Its not rocket science
@abidin-nc
May 25, 2026 at 6:07 pm
Let’s set up a scenario: An autonomous car is either going to hit a family with children right in front of it, or it will swerve and risk my life. Which one should it choose? If it chooses to risk the passenger inside, which is me, why would I even buy this car? After all, I am paying money for it.
@tierraedwards117
May 25, 2026 at 7:22 pm
Leave the World Behind (Netflix) showed us why this isn’t a good idea.
@TheWasthereonce
May 25, 2026 at 10:34 pm
“Waymo’s Case for a Driverless Future” A.K.A. Waymo’s Case to replace as many human drivers as they can and profit enormously
@G1323-n1f
May 25, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Its fun to drive.
@G1323-n1f
May 25, 2026 at 10:50 pm
There’s barely any jobs as of right now
@benwarped7272
May 25, 2026 at 10:53 pm
Honestly I don’t even need to watch this.. I live near a highway junction intersection and people honk ALL DAY and cut lanes and speed past (busy) pedestrian walkways. So annoying. I support a driverless future!
@Fighterjet227
May 25, 2026 at 10:58 pm
Thumbnail: “Why driverless cars are safer”. Safer than what? Driving blind fold? Ghost riding the whip?
@rosieflorie
May 26, 2026 at 12:35 am
I only ever see bad situations these cars have put people in, technology for driverless cars should not be rushed. There are countless cases documenting dangerous and just flat out inconvenient mistakes these type of vehicles are making. Keep these cars in the garage until they are ready. These business owners are clearly rushing a product for a quick payout and it’s deplorable.
@jsan4864
May 26, 2026 at 2:22 am
listem folks! stop operating your motor vehicles like a dingus trying operate its air fryer!! Ooh, flashing lights and buttons, just like my air fryer, ok I can look at my lame phone and NOT worry about the road! just get off the road! Make room for the REAL drivers! it aint the autobahn but you still have an obligation when behind the wheel!! Start driving and stop getting in the way!
@lizbeth9822
May 26, 2026 at 2:42 am
They have people in the Philippines remotely navigating any tricky situations. What are the chances that these individuals have a license for the state the car is in? Also, these cars can really struggle in construction areas, around children exiting buses, entering traffic too early, etc.
@MaximoTrovatoLlompart
May 26, 2026 at 3:53 am
They are not even trying to hide this is an Ad.
@ScottCMHN
May 26, 2026 at 4:33 am
I would rather live in a city with good public transport and bicycle infrastructure.
@newlife286
May 26, 2026 at 5:31 am
No thanks stop digitalising and advertising TED…
Im tired of this
Why there s even audience 😂
@ljttr56
May 26, 2026 at 8:51 am
Yet another “Trust Me” Tech bro moment.
@r.m8146
May 26, 2026 at 11:34 am
Excellent interview.
@urbanstrencan
May 26, 2026 at 12:40 pm
Can’t wait to be able to try Waymo here in mainland Europe 🤟🤟
@NopeNotTodayMaster
May 26, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Stupidity
@shannonmikus768
May 26, 2026 at 2:21 pm
What a fluff piece. Is TED going to bow to commercial interests and start posing these “talks” which masquerade as information but are REALLY advertizing? I guess so. Have a glass of Kool-aid!
@johnjriggsarchery2457
May 26, 2026 at 2:24 pm
The face of the people destroying the fricken World.
@6WATCHMEDIA
May 26, 2026 at 2:43 pm
What a joke. The anti human propaganda is insane. Yes, in their fictional computer models where everything perfectly goes their way, drivers cars are better for the common good, says the alphabet company.
@AngryJAYMIA305
May 26, 2026 at 4:44 pm
“ let humans be humans …. Let them be distracted “ 🤦🏾♂️ in corporate language how can we make humans more stupid….. God help us.
@cp7788
May 26, 2026 at 5:20 pm
This is BS. I live in ATL and they have been here for over a year. Yes ive booked one thru uber. But in case they haven’t seen, ATL just suspended their services here. That should speak for itself.
@hndrwn
May 27, 2026 at 12:36 am
@cp7788 i have seen several error waymo in ATL’s intersection. Enough with this crappy ai lol
@JohnathanPhillips-d8n6l
May 26, 2026 at 7:49 pm
These things are definitely not 10x safer than a human, dude is just following Elon’s playbook of making far fetched claims to raise stock price no matter the truth.
@dear-future-ai
May 26, 2026 at 8:42 pm
Didn’t they just discover Waymo cars were being piloted by humans?
@DontPanic4244
May 26, 2026 at 8:46 pm
Aww. So cute that TEDtalks has been doing such great work in sponsored marketing masked as intellectual information.
Super human (no human common sense) “our cars are better than drunk drivers ” lolol what a sales pitch.
@DontPanic4244
May 26, 2026 at 8:52 pm
Also…. HOW is saying having a hands-off human driver getting distracted while ‘supervising’ the performance of the vehicle – is not as safe and PATCHING OUT a human supervising the car.
(You’re^ cutting costs. We all know that.)
Totally safer without a human observing at all (cuz they get distracted) minus the human, making sure the car doesnt get pissed and remember how to drive in the rain or an earthquake or tornado or flood OR A KID WALKING ACROSS THE STREET etc. That literally makes no sense. Lolol
@muhammadsiddiq8761
May 27, 2026 at 4:30 am
If the people are smart they would vote against this ignorant business claiming to be safer than mankind
Her voice doesn’t sound supportive for the greater community
The cars where just blocking an Atlanta community circling aimlessly and drove into flooded streets and I’ve witnessed them driving unsafely fast on the road
She’s and her people are liars to say we are comfortable with people dying on the road
@muhammadsiddiq8761
May 27, 2026 at 4:53 am
Same group of folk that do not care to limit your human ability to generate wealth and maintain yourself and family
What’s better than people doing business with people fair exchange no robbery. This and many other so called autonomous operations are a hinderance to the society there are only 24 hours in a day which means only so much is to be completed in one day
One serious issue is to much pressure on society in so many ways about rushing in time Greed is a huge proponent of that which causes the need to attempt unrealistic amounts more to obtain business dealings that are being attacked by lowering our access to proper revenue amounts.
@muhammadsiddiq8761
May 27, 2026 at 5:03 am
Check the real record and you’ll find most chauffeurs are very safe in their business ventures
@muhammadsiddiq8761
May 27, 2026 at 5:04 am
These people are a joke attempting to fool us out of our awesome natural lifestyles.
@RobertDerby-z9q
May 27, 2026 at 1:43 pm
When I worked at a school, I posted this question to the students to consider the impact of driverless cars on drop-off and pick-up, which if you don’t know is very intense choreographed procedure every school deals with every day. They started working on an app that would help driverless cars to sequence the activity. So many possibilities.
@kennyduren0831
May 27, 2026 at 3:24 pm
NO