Tekedra Mawakana

She’s Bringing Driverless Cars to a City Near You

After a rocky start, automakers and technology companies are betting big on driverless technology, and Waymo is leading the way. In 2024, it announced that its autonomous ride-hailing service, Waymo One, was available across all of Los Angeles, in addition to San Francisco and Phoenix. With 700-plus cars on the road, the company is currently offering more than 200,000 rides a week, and that number is sure to grow this year, when Waymo vehicles hits the streets of 10 new cities. Leading this growth is co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana, who was promoted from COO in 2021. While her co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov concentrates on technology, Mawakana’s legal and regulatory background has helped her successfully steer the company’s business side to dizzying new heights: In 2024, Waymo closed its largest-ever funding round at $5.6 billion, with a valuation of $45 billion.

By Audrey Goodson Kingo