Connect with us

Waymo’s co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on steering through autonomous car challenges | StrictlyVC LA

Waymo has taken the lead in the race to advance autonomous driving within the US, and its co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana joined TechCrunch Senior Editor Kirsten Korosec to break down their recent successes and challenges. Within Phoenix, Arizona, Waymo has long operated their ride-hailing service, but recent backlashes in San Francisco have highlighted the opposition the…

Published

on

Waymo has taken the lead in the race to advance autonomous driving within the US, and its co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana joined TechCrunch Senior Editor Kirsten Korosec to break down their recent successes and challenges. Within Phoenix, Arizona, Waymo has long operated their ride-hailing service, but recent backlashes in San Francisco have highlighted the opposition the company still faces.

Mawakana honed in on the company’s particular opportunity in Los Angeles, with a $2 billion transportation market opportunity, as it ramps up its push for expansion in the city and opens up rides to the public ahead of its next expansion into Austin.

StrictlyVC brings together the most important insights and most notable figures across a wide range of tech companies, and it’s now a part of TechCrunch. Throughout the year, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief and StrictlyVC host Connie Loizos is joined by members of the TechCrunch team and founders, VCs, leaders and innovators across the technology industry, pulled together from around the world.

Sign up for the StrictlyVC newsletter here:
And keep tabs on future Strictly VC events here:

#techcrunch #startups #vc #ai #fundraising #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship

Continue Reading
Advertisement
6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. @manp1039

    March 2, 2024 at 3:42 pm

    very interesting discussion. I had not considered that Waymo may IPO.. I am wondering why the speaker was suggesting that it IPO spin-off. I think as Waymo progresses with its tech and the locations it serves.. and if it continues having good working relations with policymakers and regulators and communities.. There might be an opportunity for Waymo to partner with legacy automakers to roll out, at scale, more cars.. and perhaps build cars that are more helpful and useful to riders and most cost-effective to build. herhaps even cars with a removable steering wheel that would allow an additional passenger to ride in the car. Perhaps cars that are wheelchair-accessible and can carry larger cargo items? I wanted to ride in waymo.. but, sadly, the electric bicycle i have a little too big, when folded up to fit in the raar cargo area. Perhaps even a car that can carry bicycles oar a bicycle on a rack in the back? or front?? a lot of potential.

    • @ashvinnihalani8821

      March 3, 2024 at 7:43 pm

      Basically to raise more capital. As a part of Google, they are inherently limited by the growth potential of Alphabet the stock. For example the forward looking PE ration of Alphabet is only ~20 compared to Teslas ~60. Just shows that as part of a bigger company, if they were to do a capital raise it would be limited by Googles growth potential rather than Waymas alone

  2. @user-ky7yq1kk5x

    March 3, 2024 at 5:31 pm

    Wanted to hear about the way waymo does it. Not interested in the soft items around who needs it and who uses it for what.

  3. @Steki007

    March 4, 2024 at 6:28 am

    A disappointing interview with no structure, empty questions and a lot of background noise.

  4. @jorneichhorn3397

    March 8, 2024 at 5:29 am

    Kirsten Korosec really did a good job as interviewer and tried hard. ????But the interviewee was much too reluctant to give basically any substantial information away. Though she still sometimes did by accident. Tekedra Mawakana missed out on a good opportunity to build more trust towards Waymo in the community, and with experts as well.

  5. @leonardbrinkman4410

    March 10, 2024 at 10:36 am

    I was wanting to find out when they’re going to be coming to Seattle? The reason why I say this is because I would love to see way more in Seattle because I’m legally blind and I can get around very fast and very nimble. I don’t have to worry about using public transportation or Link light rail but I can definitely use the robo taxi service to take me to my doctor’s appointments and my bank if I have to go pay the rent. I think what needs to be done is I think we need to start seeing way more and more cities and more places. And what I also see happening is that it’s way more comes to cities in the west like Seattle Portland salt lake City Las Vegas and whatever? Then we can get a grip on a few things and we can make sure that the robo taxi service works. However robo taxis do not need to be used by criminals to go commit crimes like property crimes. That is wrong! And that means that what I see happening is that you are going to see this robo taxi service take a stand on it. That is why I believe in waymo and I believe in what they do! So all I can say is keep up the good work. And I hope this service extends all across the country.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CNET

Foldable Phones Live Q&A and What to Expect at Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked Event

Join us as we dive into the world of foldable phones and pontificate about what’s on the horizon for Samsung at its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked summer event. CNET’s mobile team will be taking your questions live and breaking down Samsung’s newest foldable screen tech. Read more about Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked summer event on CNET.com Samsung’s…

Published

on

Join us as we dive into the world of foldable phones and pontificate about what’s on the horizon for Samsung at its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked summer event. CNET’s mobile team will be taking your questions live and breaking down Samsung’s newest foldable screen tech.

Read more about Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked summer event on CNET.com
Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked Event: We Expect Weird Foldables, Funky AI Glasses and More

Add CNET as a trusted news source
Never miss a deal again! See CNET’s browser extension 👉
Check out CNET’s Amazon Storefront:
Subscribe to CNET on YouTube:
Follow us on TikTok:
Follow us on Instagram:
Follow us on Bluesky:
Like us on Facebook:
CNET’s AI Atlas:
Follow us on X:
Visit CNET.com:

#foldable #foldablephone #samsung #motorola #google #pixel #pixelfold #galaxyfold #phone

Continue Reading

Science & Technology

Inside Ode with Anthropic, the startup betting AI services are the future of enterprise| Equity

Can a handful of engineers really do the work of an army of consultants? That’s the bet behind Ode with Anthropic — the joint venture dedicated to embedding forward-deployed engineers in enterprise firms, backed by Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down…

Published

on

Can a handful of engineers really do the work of an army of consultants? That’s the bet behind Ode with Anthropic — the joint venture dedicated to embedding forward-deployed engineers in enterprise firms, backed by Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Ode’s leaders Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel, who founded Fractional AI, the applied AI services startup that Ode acquired earlier this year to serve as the new venture’s core. The three discuss why so many enterprise AI pilots never make it to production and why they think AI-native services are about to become one of the biggest categories in tech.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:30 Fractional AI becomes “Ode with Anthropic”

1:13 Why non-AI companies are the real AI winners

2:04 Working with Blackstone, Anthropic, and beyond

3:05 Inside a real project: fixing LogicGate’s bottleneck

7:29 How long does it take from hypothesis to production?

9:19 Measuring ROI: revenue, efficiency, and evals

16:37 Model choice vs. workflow redesign, and why it’s Claude-first

23:10 Hiring generalists over specialized AI talent

26:39 Can this scale without turning into another consulting firm?

30:49 Outro

Continue Reading

Entertainment

How Trees Communicate

Forest conservation scientist Dominick DellaSala joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about trees. What did ancient forests look like? What do tree rings really prove? Do rainforests create rain or does rain create rainforests? Answers to these questions and many more await on Forest Support. #Nature #Trees #Rainforest Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED…

Published

on

Forest conservation scientist Dominick DellaSala joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about trees. What did ancient forests look like? What do tree rings really prove? Do rainforests create rain or does rain create rainforests? Answers to these questions and many more await on Forest Support.

#Nature #Trees #Rainforest

Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►►
Listen to the Uncanny Valley podcast ►►
Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►►

Follow WIRED:
Instagram ►►
Twitter ►►
Facebook ►►
Tik Tok ►►

ABOUT WIRED
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized.

Continue Reading

Trending