Innovation in Uncharted Territory- Tekedra Mawakana, Co-CEO of Waymo- Women in Product Keynote 2025

0:10 Such a nice introduction. Thank you. >> Wow, it's bright. >> It's bright. >> It's really bright. >> Good morning, everyone. Thanks to Ha and Carmen for those very inspirational remarks. I wanted to be out here and be like, you belong. That felt so great, right? but I'm really really excited to continue with the inspiration train this morning. we're going to talk about innovation in uncharted territory.

0:42 And Tequidra has been leading Whimo from policy to product to scale. And I live in Los Angeles. I got to say Whimos are dropping off and picking up people on my block. Not teenagers, I promise. Not yet. No. they're dropping off and picking up people on our block. I saw Whimo on the 405 the other day with a freeway with a drive test driver behind. And so I mean we're watching the future unfold and that's one of the really neat things about being in product and in tech, I think, is that you just get to be on the forefront of all that. So really excited to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.

1:17 >> Yeah, thank you. Really excited to be here and thank you Deb. >> Yes, thank you. so look, I think when people think of Whimo, the first thing they think about is safety, right? And, I will just put it out there. There's third party quantitative significant data that shows that Whimos are materially safer than human drivers. So, let's just start with that as a foundation. >> Yeah, >> we're all in tech, too. Speed is a virtue.

1:46 >> How do you think about that? What does speed mean to you >> in the context of what you're doing at Whimo? >> Yeah. So, thank you for that because I think there's always a natural tension between innovating quickly and then making sure that you're implementing the processes and culture to have a product life cycle that's sustainable, right? Because we can sort of do everything hightouch and be very thorough but extremely slow because the safest vehicle obviously is one that doesn't move. and that would be a colossal failure if we think progress is important but it could be a success if you just think safety is important. So it's been this you know being very honest with ourselves about that tension I think is one part. So it's always been one of the company values right now that value is reflected as advance safely and so the idea is about constantly moving forward. the other thing I like sort of embodied in your question is it's around like when is it okay to talk about going faster and I think in the early days you know we had to be really humble about the fact that we're just trying to get people familiar with technology that they've never experienced getting into a car without a human behind the wheel. putting your family in that car with you and then riding in the early days on 35 mph roads in Chandler, Arizona, you know, was a felt very risky.

3:18 >> And so I think making sure that sort of our internal culture understands how scary that is because like technology without that translation is just like existing in a bubble. it doesn't actually reach real people who have actual mobility needs and so that was the second thing which was like launching it understanding that that would need to be one of our virtues and then I would say third and last is it's like we just as we start going faster you know we've announced multiple markets this year we announced one today Nashville >> we it it's like starting now to talk about speed because you started in this place that we couldn't have started in 2 years ago which is like okay the Mo driver is at least five times safer than a human. Let's move on.

4:05 >> And that's exciting. >> Yeah, that's amazing. >> what was that that thing you said? Advance safely. >> Yeah. >> Okay, I'm going to not note that one. That's a really good one for all of us to think about. so >> early in my product career, I used to think of legal. It was, you know, everybody, if you're in product, you have your launch checklist, right? What do I need to do before I launch? And legal was always just like this box there. And I was like, "Okay, the red tape. I got to go to legal and get this thing approved." And then I just really had the great fortune of being able to become a product leader at some innovative companies that were pushing the boundaries. I realized the best partners in the room are the lawyers that are really partnering on innovation, especially and we call it uncharted territory, right? Like there's precedent legally for a whole bunch of stuff and then there's not precedent for a whole bunch of other stuff, right? So how do we think about that? How would you coach all of the women in this room to be amazing innovation partners with their legal partners?

5:03 >> So funny. As a former lawyer, it's like a dream question. It's like how do you make legal importance? no. I mean, I think obviously first and foremost, it starts with everyone being b businessminded, right? Like what's what's the path of the business? Is there clarity? How do we get there? And then what are the like what's that gap, >> right? because everyone has a role to play in bridging that gap. Legal has a role to play, right? Creating a really really clear path from here to there.

5:32 And so I'll just use an example. We announced yesterday that we're going to start testing and operating at SFO with Whimo vehicles. Like that's a great example of legal who's been like in negotiation. What is the regulatory framework in California as this technology rolls out? What is the role of DMV? What is the role of CPU and product? What is the capability of the driver? You know, when can we put riders in it? What's the use case that we think is most compelling? What's the data today that talks about the mobility gap?

6:06 What are those most likely uses? those two coming together to figure out exactly when we needed SFO opened >> has been like real life and that's you know many many markets many many journeys at Whimo have been product and legal and sometimes it's policy we need to change the law sometimes it's regulatory we need to comply with the law but it's a it's it's a who is an example of this kind of innovation and I think you know product people are made better by understanding those gaps because those product folks are the ones who are going to the meetings and explaining the safety record. They're explaining the capability of the driver and they're getting feedback on whatever it is that the regulators want to understand better. So, they're also understanding we're very transparent where we could be more transparent. So, it's very much a dance and a give and take.

7:02 >> Yeah, I love I love that. and thinking about just the product person being shoulderto-shoulder with the lawyer and thinking through how to do all those things in perhaps non-obvious ways, right? There's innovation that happens when those people come together. That's awesome. >> Well, speaking of innovation, my 90year-old mother-in-law just had a stroke. She's healthy, but she can no longer drive. >> And I want to talk to you backstage about how to get her on the wait list for when she can buy her very own Whimo.

7:33 But separate from that, you know, her vision for her life is that she really wants to be able to have a Whimo. She lives kind of in a remote area. So it's like, you know, but to drive herself to the market, right? Simple things that are very human problems that are major quality of life improvements, right? Yeah. >> So when you think about Whimo, we're all thinking about autonomous driving and the expansion, but there might be a bigger and broader vision for how you think that this can impact humanity really in society.

8:03 >> Can you share a little bit more about that with us? >> Yes. Yes. I'm glad to hear she's okay. >> Yes. Thank you. and the use case that you just described is one of the earliest ones that we focused on, which was one of the hardest moments that if you're blessed enough to live old enough is actually taking when family members have to take family members keys away. And so one of the things we did in the very early days of getting product feedback is we partnered with Foundation for Senior Living in Arizona and we actually went out and were part of those handover conversations in the early days. So this was back like in 2020 2021 of like instead of talking about taking your key away, we're going to pull out your cell phone, we're going to download the Whimo app and we're going to have you take a ride by yourself. And it was I mean to say it was magical is is not even an overstatement because one it was all of a sudden the older sort of folks telling the younger folks it's not scary at all try it which was fun. But then secondly, it really demonstrated to us that finding product market fit is in understanding the gaps not just in mobility but in access to independence and freedom, which to me is one of the things that you're talking about. And so in my early days at Whimo, states were implementing laws where they were still going to require the rider in an autonomous vehicle to have a license.

9:34 And that's one of the earliest things we focused on is like riders should be passengers. And just because they're alone doesn't mean they should have the responsibility to take over the vehicle because then we're not expanding mobility. We're just creating another option for everyone who can already drive. And so to me, when I think about this, it's everyone who can't move around independently, vision impaired, you know, people with EP epilepsy, seen and unseen. people who can't drive because they're not old enough or people who shouldn't drive because they're not good drivers. I mean, it's sort of like runs the gamut in terms of able-bodied and not able-bodied. And so when we think about it, we really think everyone who just wants a space that's safe and private. And so, you know, one of our biggest use cases is women. You know, women want to be able to not think about who's going to pick them up, not think about whether there's going to be a conversation or not, and not think about their safety. And so, that's an area that we've been really excited about. We sort of believed that, but it's actually proven to be quite important.

10:41 >> Yeah. Wow. So, there's, as we were talking about, you all belong and then, you know, all these other people belong too, right? like they have the the mobility angle and the right to that's wonderful >> a ride for everyone. >> Well, I did a little research and there was a a past interview you did and I'm going to pull up my notes so I can read it. So the question was what makes a really great trait of an employee? And this is what what this is what she wrote and it was so good. Okay. she said, "Employees who expect the best from leadership at all times are sometimes seen as idealistic and ungrounded, but you consider it a powerful virtue that helps build a better culture." And I I read that and I was like, "Yes, and how?"

11:31 So that's my question for you, right? are a room full of women and very, you know, strong, opinionated, experienced women that might want to push their leaders, but maybe we don't cuz we don't want to be labeled as being too demanding or too pushy or any of those things, right? So, how would we express these high expectations in a way that's constructive and accreative for the culture? >> Yeah, thanks for reminding me that I said that. I still agree with those words. I really think, you know, being a leader yourself is one of the best ways to push your leader because I think and I'm sort of making an assumption that your leader is strong.

12:16 >> cuz that's, you know, that's a healthy assumption to make and that's the situation that we'd love to be in, which is really strong leaders want to foster strong leaders under them. And so I think having that direct conversation is first and foremost what you have to do. I think secondly it's stating your gaps. I think it's disarming for people when people are super self-aware. Everyone has areas of growth. I think there's so much fear around stating what they are >> and I think your leader also has areas of growth. You may be better at something than they are by stating your gap. You're actually encouraging your leader to start to state their gap >> because like nobody I didn't get here at Whimo without an amazing team. Nobody gets there alone. And so I think this convers being less fearful around the conversation of what how you need me and how I need you. And I don't think, you know, I did this earlier in my career, which is the reason that I feel pretty strongly about it. And it always felt like a big risk, and it always worked out fine.

13:29 >> I love that. I love that tip. Well, with that, I think we're ready to move on to the next speaker, but thank you so much for joining us. >> Thank you so much conversation. >>