Will Robotaxis Create More Jobs? Waymo’s CEO Thinks So

According to Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, the shift towards driverless taxis is an opportunity to open up new jobs. 

Speaking to the New York Times, Tekedra said that it was “great to see” that the tech was not replacing people “now that we’ve been in a few markets for a few years".

Waymo began as Google’s self-driving car project in 2009, before becoming its own independent entity under Alphabet in December 2016. The company currently operates around 3,000 driverless vehicles in select US cities.

The growing robotaxi market

The presence of robotaxis is steadily increasing, with an analysis from Boston Consulting Group estimating that the global robotaxi fleet could range from 700,000 to 3 million vehicles by 2035. 

This research also suggests customer openness to driverless taxis is also rising, with BCG forecasting that US openness would rise to around 60% by 2030. 

Despite fears that this growth would lead to a lack of jobs, Tekedra believes that this could lead to an increase in the blue-collar workforce. 

She says: “Humans are still rotating those tires and working on those vehicles. “We have fleet operators, we have fleet technicians. All of our fleets are fully electric. 

“Those charging companies are building the infrastructure, putting them in city centres, pulling those wires from the utility company.”

A commitment to workforce development

To train up this workforce, Waymo announced in February that it would partner with TechForce – a US nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of professional technicians across the transportation industry. 

Waymo has said it will fund 28 tuition scholarships for students and working technicians enrolled in technical and community college programmes, while creating resources for more people across the country.

Jennifer Maher, CEO of TechForce, said of the collaboration: “This partnership with Waymo will help open new doors to opportunities for students and working technicians in the emerging electric and autonomous vehicle industries.

“Together Waymo and TechForce will help prepare students for careers in fields like automotive technology, robotics and mechatronics, opportunities that will multiply as emerging transportation technologies expand around the US.”

This is Waymo’s latest workforce development initiative, which follows a commitment to workforce development it began in 2023 with its Career Readiness Institute.

The initiative, which the company developed in partnership with LA Tech, is a 16 week registered pre-apprenticeship programme, which has helped prepare more than 200 students for careers in tech and provided opportunities to learn about career paths in the automated vehicle industry. 

Increasing automation in the ride-sharing industry

Waymo is not the only company preparing for advancements in self-driving car capabilities. 

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, shared on The Diary of a CEO podcast that he believes the majority of the company’s rides will be automated in the next two decades. 

He said: “You can imagine the majority of our trips being fulfilled by robots of some kind. Probably not 10 years from now, but you go 15 to 20 years from now, you’re going to start getting there.”

The company has around 9.5 million active drivers globally, and has developed new operating structures to provide these drivers with work. This includes the introduction of a ‘Digital Tasks’ pilot programme in October, where drivers are paid to complete short-in app assignments to help train AI-models.

At the All in Summit, Dara said that Uber was “expanding into other kinds of on-demand work as well to be able to adjust the kind of work available to people who want to earn on our own platform”.