Google-owned Waymo’s co-CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, has made a positive prediction about driverless cars. This prediction comes as robotaxis continue to expand across American cities and even other countries. Mawakana has predicted that the shift toward autonomous mobility will create new types of jobs for humans rather than eliminate them. Speaking to The New York Times, Mawakana said that while human drivers may no longer be behind the wheel, workers are still required across operations, maintenance, and infrastructure.
“Humans are still rotating those tyres and working on those vehicles. We have fleet operators and 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,” Mawakana said.
Mawakana said the transition to autonomous systems is shifting human roles rather than removing them. Workers are increasingly involved in supporting the backend of operations, including fleet management, maintenance, and charging infrastructure.
“Now that we’ve been in a few markets for a few years, it’s great to be able to see that we haven’t eliminated jobs in those markets,” he added.
Waymo, which began as a self-driving car project under Google, has grown into a major autonomous vehicle (AV) operator in the US. The company runs services in at least 10 cities with a fleet of around 3,000 robotaxis. The company operates in a space attracting competitors such as Tesla and Zoox, raising concerns among ride-hailing and gig workers about potential job losses.
How Waymo is preparing the workforce for robotaxis
To support workforce development, Waymo has introduced initiatives such as funding tuition scholarships for technicians in the US and partnering with Bronx Community College to build an automotive technology program focused on future mobility needs.
The company’s global head of public policy, Justin Kintz, told Fortune that the company’s investments in infrastructure and service expansion are also contributing to job creation across different skill levels. “create opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds, by bringing a wide variety of new, non-college and trades-work roles to communities around the U.S.”
The move toward more automation is already clear in many areas, from warehouses to food service, where machines and AI systems are taking over boring tasks. Driverless taxis are another part of this change. They are becoming more common, but there is still much debate about how they will affect jobs.
Waymo maintains that its model relies on a combination of automation and human support, with roles evolving alongside the technology rather than disappearing entirely.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says most rides could eventually be handled by automated systems, meaning ride-hailing will change as self-driving cars become more common. Robotaxis are becoming more common, but drivers and passengers are still worried about their reliability and the safety of their jobs.
A 2025 Goldman Sachs report says the number of robotaxis in the US could grow from 1,500 in 2025 to about 35,000 by 2030. This could make up 8% of the ride-share market. However, people are cautious, with about 85% expecting job losses and 70% being unsure or worried about the technology, according to an analysis of Pew Research Center data by the University of California, San Diego.
Khosrowshahi said that the majority of Uber’s trips could be “fulfilled by robots of some kind” within 20 years. At the same time, projections from the Chamber of Progress indicate that deploying 9 million autonomous vehicles over 15 years could create more than 114,000 jobs across production, maintenance, and repair. The study also suggests that about 190 workers would be needed for every 1,000 AVs produced and deployed annually.
Companies are also preparing workers for new roles. Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan said the company plans to introduce robobuses in Singapore while exploring ways to upskill drivers.
“We see new kinds of jobs emerging. For example, drivers could be remote safety drivers, data labellers; they could change LiDARs, cameras, and so forth,” Tan said.
