Driving Waymo's Fully Autonomous Future

Abstract

In June 2021, Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., the holding company and parent to Google, is a market leader in developing and deploying autonomous vehicles (AV). New co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana has been tasked with guiding Waymo's continued development and scaling of its AV offerings. Waymo had debuted several notable AV innovations, including fully autonomous driving software; a commercial ride-hailing service in metro Phoenix, Arizona; partnerships with well-respected car manufacturers like Daimler AG, Nissan-Renault, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo; and an autonomous trucking and last-mile delivery pilot service in test markets in three US states.Meanwhile, competitors such as GM, Tesla, Audi, and Amazon are investing heavily in the pursuit of AVs and launching competing products and services. In this increasingly crowded and competitive AV space, Mawakana needs to decide on how to best steer Waymo forward.

Excerpt

UVA-S-0367

Jan. 10, 2022

Driving Waymo's Fully Autonomous Future

There isn't a chance to build, develop, deploy and introduce this technology again. You have to do it right the first time. You have to build public trust, you have to gain acceptance, you have to make sure the regulatory landscape is ripe and right for it. Then you launch what we believe will be a very successful service, and then you can scale from there.

—Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo Co-CEO

On an early morning in July 2021, Tekedra Mawakana walked into Waymo's headquarters in downtown Mountain View, California. Scanning the office floor, Mawakana noticed mostly empty desks—Waymo employees had just begun returning to in-person work from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was her third full month on the job as co-CEO.

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Keywords: digital strategy, autonomous vehicles, disruptive technology, automobiles, Tesla, Google, Amazon