Waymo boss Tekedra Mawakana believes people will “accept” if a driverless taxi killed a person by running them over, and it follows one driverless car running over a beloved cat.
Driverless taxis have become more commonplace across the United States. Tesla’s robotaxis are being tested in Texas, Amazon’s Zoox taxis are popping up in Las Vegas, and Waymo has started expanding from the West Coast to the East Coast.
The robot ride shares, however, haven’t been without issue. Robotaxis dropped two passengers off in the middle of traffic, while Waymo horns have been going off at all hours of the night, and their taxis have sped through red lights.
A Waymo in San Francisco even killed a beloved cat, Kitkat, after one of the driverless cars struck it during a trip. However, Waymo boss Tekedra Mawakana believes society will “accept” it if they kill people in the future.
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“Will society accept a death potentially caused by a robot?” Mawakana was asked by TechCrunch transportation editor Kirsten Korosec.
“I think that society will. I think the challenge for us is making sure that society has a high enough bar on safety that companies are held to,” the Waymo co-CEO said. “Companies should be transparent about their safety record, companies should publish data about how many crashes they are involved in.
“It’s important to recognize. It’s not going to be perfection, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be accountable for transparency. We really worry as a company about those days. You know, we don’t say whether, we say when, and we plan for them.”
Mawakana noted there is no “acceptable” number, but there are plenty of collisions caused by human drivers.
Waymo did pledge to make a donation to a local animal rights organization in San Francisco following the death of KitKat.
“The trust and the safety of the communities we serve is our highest priority,” a spokesperson told KRON4.
Residents who knew the cat, however, said it was “disgusting” that the animal had been killed. “I’ve known multiple people that have been hit by those vehicles, myself included, and I just find it disgusting that that’s the way KitKat went,” one said.
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