Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo made an unusual leadership move last year: employing two executives it filled its CEO spot that had been vacated by John Krafcik.
The new co-CEO role combined the technological prowess of its CTO Dmitri Dolgov with the policy and commercial operations expertise of its COO Tekedra Mawakana.
Two executives sharing the CEO seat doesn’t always work; and yet Waymo seems to be making some progress under the joint leadership of Dolgov and Mawakana, including expanding its robotaxi testing to employees in San Francisco.
So, how did the pair navigate this tricky arrangement? And what is coming next?
We plan to find out when Dolgov joins us onstage for a fireside chat at TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 in San Mateo, California on May 18 to May 19.
A lot has happened since Dolgov and Mawakana took over, including raising another $2.5 billion in funding.
Our conversation intends to cover it all, including how the new leadership structure works, what changes have already been implemented and what others might lie ahead.
We’ll no doubt touch on its efforts to commercialize driverless robotaxis in San Francisco, its technological and commercial progress in Phoenix, ambitions to roll out driverless trucking operations and maybe even the state of the company’s rivalry with Cruise.
We’re also curious about the future of AVs at Waymo, where AV technologies and regulatory issues stand now and where they need to go to be broadly embraced and used by the general public.
Dolgov brings a CTO’s experience and perspective to his new leadership role. He is one of the founding employees of the Google self-driving car project, which began in 2009 and became Waymo in 2016. Now, as co-CEO, Dolgov determines the company’s overall strategy.
His primary focus is on the development and deployment of the Waymo Driver, which is based on a custom, in-house designed and fully autonomous technology stack. Prior to Waymo, Dmitri worked on autonomous driving efforts at Toyota and at Stanford as part of Stanford’s DARPA Urban Challenge team.
Don’t miss this one-on-one conversation with Dmitri Dolgov and an in-depth look at Waymo’s new leadership, competition, the future of AVs and what it will take to drive autonomous ride-hailing services across the profitability finish line.
TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 breaks through the hype and goes beyond the headlines to discover how merging technology and transportation will affect a broad swath of industries, cities and the people who work and live in them. Buy your pass today, before prices increase — you’ll save $200!