By rssfeeds-admin 
Plenty of hands were raised from the crowd, which came from all over the world to attend the annual startup convention. The moderator and Waymo Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana concurred that the number of hands raised has risen significantly since the last similar event in February.
The show of hands encapsulates the growth of Waymo since fully autonomous vehicles started roaming Phoenix streets five years ago. In those eight months between talks, Mawakana’s company has expanded in Austin and Atlanta.
It’s now a total of five U.S. metros where you can find a white Jaguar SUV that picks and drops off passengers without a human driver behind the wheel: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta and Phoenix.
Mawakana was in the city where Waymo is headquartered on Monday morning to discuss the autonomous vehicle company’s future in a sit-down interview with TechCrunch Transportation Editor Kirsten Korosec for a talk titled “The Self-Driving Reality Check.”
The CEO revealed the next goal is for Waymo to expand on freeways. Mawakana said that it is “imperative” to expand its service map.
“I think of all of it (freeway expansion) as the ingredients to expand the service territory and meet more needs of more riders. That’s what we’re focused on,” Mawakana said.
The freeway expansion — which Mawakana says testing for is already underway in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix — is also the key for Waymo to operate at airports. In the Bay Area, a permit was granted for Waymo to eventually operate at San Jose Airport and San Francisco International Airport.
Like with anything an ambitious CEO says aloud, the key factor for bringing those plans into fruition is money. Good news for Mawakana: Waymo is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google. She is confident Waymo has the financial backing to succeed.
Mawakana admitted she is “OK” with not being profitable in the meantime, while Waymo prioritizes expansion.
“We’re really, really fortunate to have strong backers,” Mawakana said in reference to the deep pockets of Waymo’s parent company.
Within the past year, Waymo has announced partnerships with established companies like Toyota, DoorDash, Uber and Spotify.
What’s next for the industry leader in autonomous vehicles? According to Mawakana, Miami is the next city, and the launch is planned for early 2026.
The other cities the CEO name-dropped were London and Tokyo. One TechCrunch attendee from the United Kingdom made her first visit to San Francisco and called it “super exciting” to ride in a Waymo. Perhaps it will be sooner rather than later that she gets to ride in a driverless vehicle in her country.
Another conference attendee, who came all the way from Kazakhstan, would love to have Waymo in his home country.
“We invite Waymo to Kazakhstan, to come, to test, said Nursultan Dyussebayev, founder of startup Bult.ai. “We’ll provide the infrastructure. We have cool roads that will be perfect for Waymo to test in Central Asia.”
Mawakana said the public should eventually expect Waymo to offer 1 million rides per week. Right now, that number is at about 250,000.
“You will see us show up in a number of cities over the next six months,” Mawakana said.
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