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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to a special edition of Bloomberg Tech. I'm Ed Ludlow.

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Speaker 2: Weaimo is widely seen as leading the robotaxi race, but

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Speaker 2: with competitors like Tesla on its heel, the Alphabet unit

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Speaker 2: has no interest in hitting the brakes on growth. In

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Speaker 2: a wide ranging interview, Weimo co CEO to Qidra Markhana

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Speaker 2: talk to us about expanding into foreign markets, ongoing safety investigations,

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Speaker 2: and their recent mega funding round. Let's take a listen

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Speaker 2: to that conversation. Now, you've just raised sixteen billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot of money. What is it unlocked for

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Speaker 2: Weimo over the next twelve twenty four months.

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Speaker 3: Raising the sixteen billion dollars and at one hundred and

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Speaker 3: twenty six billion dollar valuation, is really a vote of confidence.

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Speaker 3: I mean, this team has been heads down for a

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Speaker 3: long time trying to bring this sort of scientific project

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Speaker 3: into reality and at scale. And so it's a huge

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Speaker 3: event of confidence not only from our majority investor, Alphabet,

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Speaker 3: but also from our co lead investors Sequoia and DST

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Speaker 3: and Dragonear, as well as a host of world class

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Speaker 3: existing and new investors and it just allows us to

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Speaker 3: continue to scale our business. Right now, we're laying the

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Speaker 3: groundwork for over twenty cities in this year alone.

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Speaker 2: I should point out, you know, we reported Alphabet will

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Speaker 2: account for the vast majority of that sixteen billion. But

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Speaker 2: it is interesting, so Quoia Capital Dst Dragonaire beyond you investors,

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Speaker 2: what do we interpret from that that they came in

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Speaker 2: at this stage of the company's life.

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Speaker 3: I think it's important to interpret that this is an

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Speaker 3: inflection point, right, Like in twenty twenty five, we quadrupled

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Speaker 3: the number of trips that we are providing, so we

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Speaker 3: offered fifteen million rides and we have over twenty million

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Speaker 3: lifetime rides.

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Speaker 4: So it's just a really important year.

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Speaker 3: And now that we've launched Miami, that's across six cities,

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Speaker 3: but at that time it was across five cities, and

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Speaker 3: so demonstrating not only that the technology works, that we're

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Speaker 3: able to drive the safety impacts that we've been focused on,

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Speaker 3: you know, with when we were at one hundred and

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Speaker 3: twenty seven million miles, we were able to demonstrate a

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Speaker 3: ninety percent that we had ninety percent fewer serious injury

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Speaker 3: causing crashes or worse. That's the kind of safety output

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Speaker 3: that drives us. That's our mission to be the world's

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Speaker 3: most trusted driver. So coming in at this point demonstrates

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Speaker 3: that consumers are adopting it, the safety case is being made.

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Speaker 4: And it's just really exciting time to join the team.

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Speaker 2: You set the same for expansion across twenty cities this year.

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Speaker 2: Right right now, you're doing four hundred thousand paid rides

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Speaker 2: a week across six cities.

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Speaker 1: It's a greater scale.

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Speaker 2: Than when you and I talked to more than a

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Speaker 2: year ago, which seemed to be to be a time

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Speaker 2: of pace. Then what's the biggest challenge of operating a

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Speaker 2: robotaxi service at that new scale that you're developing.

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Speaker 3: I think everything is really exciting right now, and there

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Speaker 3: are many many things to be learned as we go.

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Speaker 3: Right like some markets are still not open and they're

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Speaker 3: really important transportation hubs around the world, like New York City, right,

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Speaker 3: you know. And so we were the first company to

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Speaker 3: receive a testing permit where we had driver supervision of

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Speaker 3: fully autonomous testing in the city. And we believe now

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Speaker 3: with Governor Hokel that we will be able to be

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Speaker 3: the first company to launch a New York City a

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Speaker 3: New York state. But you know this is going to

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Speaker 3: be a path actually figuring out the regulatory landscape.

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Speaker 2: There's something there, isn't there. City versus state, state versus ver.

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Speaker 2: We will talk about it. Yeah, I got a lot

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Speaker 2: of interest when I said that I was going to

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Speaker 2: be speaking with you about sixteen billion dollars. A lot

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Speaker 2: of money, but actually how will you use it? There's

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Speaker 2: a tension between scaling operations the fleet. You know, you've

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Speaker 2: got to have more cars, but also a commitment to

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Speaker 2: invest in technology. And I wanted to teach you how

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Speaker 2: far you've thought about how much goes into each of

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Speaker 2: those buckets.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so first and foremost, when we think about twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty six, you know, just the year ahead of us

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Speaker 3: execution execution execution, So scaling across these twenty cities that

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Speaker 3: were laying the groundwork for continuing to grow our world

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Speaker 3: class team is obviously super important to us. Making sure

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Speaker 3: that we are continuing to cost down our hardware stack

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Speaker 3: and prove out our unit economics while scaling our fleet.

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Speaker 3: And so we have our fully electric ipace fleet. We

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Speaker 3: are starting to introduce the OHI vehicles and then you

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Speaker 3: will see the ionic fives come online and so making

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Speaker 3: sure that we are investing for the long term for

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Speaker 3: a sustainable business is what we're really fueding.

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Speaker 2: See the ohig vehicles testing. If I am a user

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Speaker 2: of the service right now, will I soon be able

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Speaker 2: to actually get into an.

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Speaker 3: Ohai you will this year be able to right now?

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Speaker 3: We've only throughout twenty twenty five. In the beginning of

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Speaker 3: this year, had employees in three cities.

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Speaker 2: We just had a huge weekend here in the Bay Area,

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Speaker 2: San Francisco, but Santa Clara Super Bowl. Yes, I across

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Speaker 2: social media saw a lot of people reflect on their

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Speaker 2: first experience in a robotaxi, some of them of course

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Speaker 2: with Weimo, was that a tangible, meaningful moment for.

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Speaker 1: The company recently in the town?

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Speaker 4: Yes?

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Speaker 1: What data?

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Speaker 2: What evidence can we can we point to on how

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Speaker 2: big a weekend?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Super Bowl is a reminder for us that Weimo

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Speaker 3: is part of the fabric of the Bay Area, right

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Speaker 3: Like people were able to hail rides from SFO from

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Speaker 3: San Jose Airport, people were able to get to.

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Speaker 4: And from the Levi Stadium.

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Speaker 3: You know, we obviously did a lot of fun activations

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Speaker 3: with influencers, but it's just a reminder that people are

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Speaker 3: using the weimo service in every day Aaron's doctor's appointments,

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Speaker 3: you know, getting kids to practice, in big life moments, weddings,

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Speaker 3: picking up a child from daycare, having a baby, you know,

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Speaker 3: going to the going to the hospital, pregnant, coming home

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Speaker 3: from the hospital with a newborn, and then these large

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Speaker 3: cultural moments, and so we've had a number of them. Obviously,

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Speaker 3: we started the month with the Grammys. We had a

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Speaker 3: host of activations there, then the super Bowl, and then

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Speaker 3: of course we have the All Star weekend coming in

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Speaker 3: Los Angeles, and so we're just finding this intersection of

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Speaker 3: everyday life and then real enthusiasm because a lot of

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Speaker 3: people came to the Bay Area for the super Bowl

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Speaker 3: and we're not in their city, and it's the thing

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Speaker 3: they had heard from their friends in the area. You

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Speaker 3: have to check out weimo, And so we saw so

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Speaker 3: many downloads.

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Speaker 4: And so many happy writers while they were here.

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Speaker 2: Weimo's reputation is growing globally and we're going to talk

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Speaker 2: about the literal expansion of your operations. But with this

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Speaker 2: funding round, you know, it's a who's who of investors

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Speaker 2: now on the cap table. It's a big raise at

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Speaker 2: a premium valuation. How much of that is sort of

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Speaker 2: setting the pieces in motion to life eventually as a

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Speaker 2: public company. Is that something that you and Dmitri and

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Speaker 2: the rest of the leadership plan for or is their

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Speaker 2: merit staying as you are now?

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Speaker 3: You know, we are just laser focused on execution, you know,

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Speaker 3: building way MO to be financially responsible, operationally excellent, and

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Speaker 3: then make sure we maintain the safety culture. Like that's

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Speaker 3: what we're really focused on. Having this vote of confidence,

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Speaker 3: as you said, not only from Alphabet, but from our

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Speaker 3: three colleades from this round, and from all of the

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Speaker 3: new investors who decided to join our cap table and

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Speaker 3: the existing ones who doubled down on their belief that

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Speaker 3: this is the right opportunity to fund. And so we

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Speaker 3: just feel humbled, but also there's a lot to do.

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Speaker 3: So we're just really focused on making sure that we

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Speaker 3: can scale, focusing on our two first international launches, you know,

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Speaker 3: London and Tokyo, and scaling across the United SCE.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the growth.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people just want to understand in some

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Speaker 2: of those cities where people are frustrated because the service

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Speaker 2: doesn't exist, what does it take to launch in a

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Speaker 2: city to go from mapping that city through to a

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Speaker 2: full paid commercial service.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if the regulatory climate of a city is welcoming,

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Speaker 3: then if then we can show up and map and

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Speaker 3: launch in a couple of months like we did in Miami, right.

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Speaker 3: You know that's a city where you know, they were

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Speaker 3: welcoming and they were ready and we were ready, and

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Speaker 3: so we showed up. You know, we have a fleet

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Speaker 3: operating partner, and we were able to launch quite quickly

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Speaker 3: after we first arrived. I think in a lot of cities,

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Speaker 3: especially cities that are meaningful from a transportation perspective, we're helping,

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Speaker 3: we're working engaging with policymakers. You know, we have the

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Speaker 3: burden to demonstrate our safety impact. And so with one

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Speaker 3: hundred and twenty seven million miles in ninety percent fewer injury,

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Speaker 3: serious injury causing crashes or worse, you know, we have

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Speaker 3: to educate them on that kind of impact. Eighty two

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Speaker 3: percent fewer airbag deployments. You know, this isn't something that

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Speaker 3: any fleet based business has been able to come in

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Speaker 3: and give policymakers data. So assuming that we can do

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Speaker 3: that and then grow trust, and you know, we do

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Speaker 3: that by partnering with organizations in markets who have been

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Speaker 3: trying to.

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Speaker 4: Solve road safety issues.

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Speaker 3: They've been trying to expand mobility options for residents, and

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Speaker 3: so we partner with them. And then obviously we work

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Speaker 3: with law enforcement and first responders to train them on

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Speaker 3: horror technology works.

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Speaker 2: We do not yet have, although there has been progress

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Speaker 2: towards just this week, a federal level framework set of rules.

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Speaker 2: What do you think the direction of travel is with that?

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Speaker 2: And you know, clearly if you had to deal with

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Speaker 2: one set of rules and not a city by city,

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Speaker 2: let alone state by state based this or case, you'd

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Speaker 2: be making a bit more progress.

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Speaker 1: I suppose.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we think it's really important that there is a

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Speaker 3: federal av standard. We've been advocating for sort of a

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Speaker 3: safety case based approach because the technologies are different, and

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Speaker 3: we think that the burdens should be on companies to

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Speaker 3: demonstrate why you believe your technology is safe enough. We

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Speaker 3: also think there should be transparency requirements. You know, people

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Speaker 3: should have to demonstrate how many trips are you providing?

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Speaker 4: You know, I don't right now. The balance isn't quite there.

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Speaker 3: I mean, some states require a lot of reporting, some

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Speaker 3: don't require as much reporting.

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Speaker 4: I think the United States has.

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Speaker 3: An opportunity with this technology to lead globally, and I

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Speaker 3: don't think you can lead globally if it's a framework

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Speaker 3: that's governed by multiple jurisdictions across the states. And it's

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Speaker 3: a way to slow down the adoption of this technology

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Speaker 3: not only in the US but in other markets.

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Speaker 2: New York City, New York City, not necessarily New York State.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people want to know what's the the

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Speaker 2: roadblock there upon the expression and what's the timeline. You know,

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Speaker 2: you work closely with the authorities, but that is a

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Speaker 2: big potential market.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a market where you know, we're just going

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Speaker 3: to have to do the work and demonstrate our safety

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Speaker 3: outcomes and earn the trust and shizzle away at it

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Speaker 3: over time.

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Speaker 1: Do they have the rules for you to follow?

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Speaker 3: They do not have rules that allow the human operator

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Speaker 3: to be removed from vehicle entirely.

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Speaker 1: And until that changes, and until that changes.

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Speaker 3: But you know, there is an interest in doing this

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Speaker 3: in the state, even outside of the city, and that

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Speaker 3: gives us an opportunity to grow more fans and fans

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Speaker 3: actually are calling for this in cities where our technology

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Speaker 3: can't be deployed we are seeing organic campaigns spring up

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Speaker 3: saying I want Weimou in my town.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 3: And sometimes it's you know, parents of children who will

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Speaker 3: never have driver's license saying like, Okay, this is a

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Speaker 3: safer alternati, let's bring it in and let's give these

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Speaker 3: children independence. And so it's been really exciting for us

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Speaker 3: to see people demanding it, and over time that's going

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Speaker 3: to grow.

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Speaker 2: Of those twenty cities that are coming this year, New

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Speaker 2: York City is not one of them.

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Speaker 1: Fastered in.

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Speaker 2: No, that's right, that's Waimo, co CEO t Quidra Malicana.

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Speaker 2: I met Ludlow, and you're listening to a special bonus

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Speaker 2: episode of Bloomberg Tech. We'll have more on Weymo's future

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Speaker 2: with the company's co CEO right after this. Thanks for

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Speaker 2: listening to this special edition of Bloomberg Tech. I met Ludlow.

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Speaker 2: Now here's more of my conversation with Weimo co ceo

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Speaker 2: Tequidra Malicana.

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Speaker 1: San Francisco. The Bay Area is my home.

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Speaker 2: London's where I grew up, and I was studying the

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Speaker 2: map of the Burroughs that you proposed to launch in

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Speaker 2: and you correct me if my math is wrong. But

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Speaker 2: just based on those burroughs at launch, this seems to

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Speaker 2: be the biggest citywide deployment from the start that you

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Speaker 2: guys will have done.

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Speaker 1: Is that correct?

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Speaker 4: It possibly, it's correct.

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Speaker 3: I mean we're in the phases of figuring out the

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Speaker 3: specifics around the launch and figuring out the actual framework

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Speaker 3: around the launch, and so I don't want to speak

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Speaker 3: to you definitively about what we're going to do.

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Speaker 4: But what you're speaking to is we're.

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Speaker 3: Not gated by the technology, right, and we have the

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Speaker 3: appetite to scale, and we want to partner and do

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Speaker 3: so safely, and we want to earn trust. So that's

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Speaker 3: like there's a lot of levers there that we have

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Speaker 3: to figure out how to strike the right balance and

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Speaker 3: how to make sure that we're introducing it to the

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Speaker 3: community both to meet the demand.

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Speaker 2: And I asked because of those twenty cities to come,

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Speaker 2: London is one, yes, and London is now outside of

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Speaker 2: the European Union, but it's you know, it's kind of

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Speaker 2: your europe launch.

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Speaker 1: Yes, what was that experience like?

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Speaker 2: Within London's regulatory framework and the UK's regulatory framework.

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Speaker 3: They've been extremely forward leaning and interested in seeing how

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Speaker 3: this technology could actually improve safety on their roadways. And

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Speaker 3: that's where I think, you know, we find a sweet

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Speaker 3: spot when people are less sort of complacent about the

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Speaker 3: status quo. And I think there's a lot of complacency

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Speaker 3: about road depths forty thousand or one point two million globally,

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Speaker 3: and when there isn't, I think people are actively interested

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Speaker 3: in solutions and then they want to figure out, of course,

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Speaker 3: what are the things they need to think through and learn.

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Speaker 2: Well, pricing, for one, like London has take the Bus, Yes,

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Speaker 2: London has take the Tube. London is prepared to sort

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Speaker 2: of pay for a robot taxi service that's equivalent to

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Speaker 2: a human driven cab Black Cab in London or Uber

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Speaker 2: and left.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I yes, people are there's you know, obviously before

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Speaker 3: we go in, we do a lot of polling, We

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Speaker 3: meet with a lot of residents as well as advocates,

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Speaker 3: and people.

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Speaker 4: Are people want safe private spaces.

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Speaker 3: It adds to their day versus becoming time that they

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Speaker 3: lose in the day, and so it's a you know,

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Speaker 3: the thing that's been most exciting is once we introduce

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Speaker 3: the way most service into a citiescape, people discover things

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Speaker 3: they didn't think they could have, like that hour a

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Speaker 3: day in the morning, and that by yourself to get

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Speaker 3: something done.

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Speaker 4: People have just sacrificed it. Yes, and whether that's on.

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Speaker 3: Transit or whether that's it doesn't matter, and we're not

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Speaker 3: you know, people want to take transit. That's great because

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Speaker 3: you can also sit there, just can't sit there maybe

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Speaker 3: until your call on quiet. And so this is something

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Speaker 3: that we're hearing from writers all the time. I didn't

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Speaker 3: know that I needed this the way that I needed that.

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Speaker 2: Asia Pacific is also somewhere that is it varies by country,

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Speaker 2: but that robot taxis are embraced. You are looking very

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Speaker 2: closely at Japan. Yes, what do you see in the

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Speaker 2: Japanese market? Of course, you're very closely ligned with Toyota

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Speaker 2: as a partner, you know, almost a national champion for

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Speaker 2: them in the automotive space. Does your hope of launching

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Speaker 2: their go beyond Toyota? Is it in nate by Toyota?

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Speaker 2: And again, we have a lot of viewers in that

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Speaker 2: country who just want to know when.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, When we first thought about Tokyo Japan, we

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Speaker 3: thought about Tokyo right, And when we first thought about Tokyo,

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Speaker 3: we decided to partner with Neon Kotsu and go. And

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Speaker 3: that's because that, you know, the cab are such an

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Speaker 3: integral part of life there culturally as well culturally exactly.

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Speaker 3: And so what that's allowed us to do is we

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Speaker 3: have a fleet of vehicles there and the drivers of

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Speaker 3: those vehicles are part of that partnership. You know, they're

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Speaker 3: collecting the data for us, and so they're like helping

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Speaker 3: to usher in this change. There will still be cabs

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Speaker 3: for a long time, and there will be an introduction

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Speaker 3: of autonomous vehicles, and so finding partners, like you said,

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Speaker 3: national champions who can help us navigate not only are

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Speaker 3: the regulatory climate, but who already have that trust of

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Speaker 3: riders and who can help us educate riders that this

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Speaker 3: isn't like something they are not welcoming. It's actually something

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Speaker 3: they're quite excited about seeing too. Become a city of

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Speaker 3: the future from a transfert.

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Speaker 2: That is a market where the rules exist for you

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Speaker 2: to through partners or otherwise, but to charge a fair

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Speaker 2: and have a real business, even if modest at first.

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Speaker 4: That's exactly right, and of course it's something we've helped shape.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: You know, there's most places contemplated drivers around the world,

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Speaker 3: right I mean that's the way laws, whether it's fifty

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Speaker 3: years ago or one hundred years ago. I mean they

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Speaker 3: were sort of written to regulate automobiles, and automobiles were

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Speaker 3: presumed to be driven by people. And so most places

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Speaker 3: we have to think through what needs to change in

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Speaker 3: the laws, and then if people are willing to work

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Speaker 3: with us on that, then we work with them to

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Speaker 3: change it.

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Speaker 4: And so in Japan we have a path forward.

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Speaker 2: Around the world, the sort of robotaxi race is framed

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Speaker 2: in US companies against Chinese technology companies, right.

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Speaker 1: I think this is.

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Speaker 2: Something that Weymo and some of Weimo's executives have been

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Speaker 2: kind of candid about this past week in testimony. How

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Speaker 2: do you see that playing out you For example, with Toyota,

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Speaker 2: you have a partner who also in common work with

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Speaker 2: Ponyai as an example. It's something you must be conscious

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Speaker 2: of in markets where you want to expend outside of

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Speaker 2: America in particular.

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Speaker 3: Yes, in general, if there are other companies focused on

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Speaker 3: autonomous driving to make roadsafer, we think that's positive, Like

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Speaker 3: that is a positive thing. We should have competition around

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Speaker 3: saving lives, and so that's a good thing. I think

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Speaker 3: what we don't spend a lot of time thinking about

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Speaker 3: is how everyone is thinking about how to pursue partnerships.

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Speaker 3: Right now, we're just laser focused on our strategy. We're

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Speaker 3: the only company that is offering a twenty four x

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Speaker 3: seven service across six markets in the US, with ambitions

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Speaker 3: to be in many more this year and launch internationally.

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Speaker 3: And you know, we've driven over two hundred almost two

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Speaker 3: hundred million fully autonomous miles, and we're driving over four

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Speaker 3: million miles per week, and so that's if you think

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Speaker 3: about it, that's over six human lifetimes every seven days.

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Speaker 3: And so our driver is learning at a rapid piece.

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Speaker 3: So we don't think there's anyone who's doing anything close

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Speaker 3: to what we're doing, and so for us, it's just

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Speaker 3: staying focused on our own ambitions.

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Speaker 2: Safety, there are still concerns, and in January in particular,

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Speaker 2: there's two kind of again case studies of regulatory scrutiny,

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Speaker 2: right of two specific incidents. I think it's important for

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Speaker 2: both of them. I take time in putting it to

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Speaker 2: you and explain to you. But in the case of

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Speaker 2: the Santa Monica incident, for example, a way more vehicle

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Speaker 2: struck or collided with a child, but the system detected

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Speaker 2: the child, it breaked sharply, and at the point that

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Speaker 2: the impact was made, it was a speed of single

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Speaker 2: digits miles per hourly six It had been traveling at seventeen.

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Speaker 2: So in that instance the the system worked, but a

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Speaker 2: probe was opened. Just would you reflect on that. But also,

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Speaker 2: you know, my interpretation of what weaimos publicly stayed about

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Speaker 2: this is that you actually kind of welcome the opportunity

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Speaker 2: to open up the system to the regulators, let them

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Speaker 2: look at it.

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Speaker 3: Yes, so, first and foremost, this was a child, and

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Speaker 3: we are extremely happy that she walked away from this incident,

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Speaker 3: as you said, because there's you know, an investigation depending,

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Speaker 3: we thought it was important to become a party to

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Speaker 3: the investigation, and so we're doing that. And as we've

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Speaker 3: already stated, you know, our car was traveling sixteen miles

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Speaker 3: per seventeen miles per hour.

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Speaker 4: We did detect her, you know.

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Speaker 3: Coming between from behind a tall suv into the roadway.

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Speaker 3: We heartbreaked and we made contact and at six miles

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Speaker 3: an hour. And we also determined and our human equivalent

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Speaker 3: model that human would not have been able to perform

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Speaker 3: as our superhuman driver performed. And so this is an

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Speaker 3: example we believe of exactly.

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Speaker 4: Why we do what we do.

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Speaker 3: We want to make roads safer, and we welcome the

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Speaker 3: opportunity to cooperate with the NTSB and this investigation.

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Speaker 2: Separately, safety investigators are looking at the issue of how

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Speaker 2: the WEIMO interacts with parked school buses. This seems to

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Speaker 2: be sort of a separate technical challenge. And what is

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Speaker 2: that about. Why is it that the weaiymos system has

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Speaker 2: to I guess struggles with is the is the headline

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Speaker 2: that came out, but with a parked vehicle of that

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Speaker 2: size in a school zone of course, where you have

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Speaker 2: mixed foot traffic of children in particular.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, first and foremost, with safety

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Speaker 3: being our priority, how we perform around school buses and

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Speaker 3: children is a top priority for our company. You know,

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Speaker 3: we've already addressed this situation with a software release, which

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Speaker 3: is really important to us.

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Speaker 4: But also we partnered with the US.

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Speaker 3: An independent school district, Yes, to look at data they

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Speaker 3: have so we can make sure that we are learning

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Speaker 3: from what they have. You know, their data obviously would

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Speaker 3: be more based on human driven vehicles, but still having

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Speaker 3: that opportunity to learn is really important to us. And

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Speaker 3: then once again, we have agreed with the NTSB to

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Speaker 3: be a party to this investigation because we think it's

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Speaker 3: important for us to understand for them to understand what

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Speaker 3: we're seeing, because we also have a lot of awareness

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Speaker 3: around the school buses.

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Speaker 2: If we call that an edge case interaction with the

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Speaker 2: school bus. That software fix that you talked about, is

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Speaker 2: it a total fix? In other words, there's way more

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Speaker 2: believe it's now solved that technical challenge.

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Speaker 3: I don't think we can think of it as a

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Speaker 3: single thing, okay, and I want to be super respectful

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Speaker 3: of the investigation here and so, but I don't think

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Speaker 3: we should think of it as a thing because you know,

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Speaker 3: there are angles, there are times they're not all parked,

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Speaker 3: and so I think we should let the investigation play

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Speaker 3: out and then happy to talk to you afterwards.

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Speaker 2: There was a big sort of technological development which was

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Speaker 2: with GENI three, you know, the use of simulation. How

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Speaker 2: much has that kind of accelerated that the technology development

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Speaker 2: side of what Weimo's doing of late.

442
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Speaker 3: I think it's really exciting for us and something that

443
00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 3: we continue to partner with the research teams. But really

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00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 3: our acceleration hasn't been dependent on.

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00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:37,879
Speaker 2: That WEIMO has always talked about safety in the context

446
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:46,520
Speaker 2: of redundancy. Right, it's a multisensor suite around the vehicle, camera, vision, lider, radar,

447
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 2: Tesla's approach, and they are at much smaller scale, especially

448
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:55,160
Speaker 2: in the vehicles that no longer have a safety supervisor.

449
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:59,399
Speaker 2: Is a vision only approached when you are trying to

450
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 2: scale in all of these cities? Is the different technology

451
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:07,679
Speaker 2: Are the different technology approaches something that worry you based

452
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 2: on your belief of the kind of redundancy that's required.

453
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 3: No, it doesn't worry me. We have a lot of

454
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 3: conviction about our approach.

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00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:17,400
Speaker 1: Right.

456
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,119
Speaker 3: Our approach is what allowed us in October of twenty

457
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:24,399
Speaker 3: twenty to remove the human driver from behind the wheel,

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00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,480
Speaker 3: and it's what's allowed us to be the only company

459
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 3: to scale to over four hundred thousand trips per week.

460
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:33,840
Speaker 3: If you can see and smell, and taste, in touch

461
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,439
Speaker 3: and have all of your senses, why wouldn't you, And

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00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 3: especially with a safety critical function, we think it is

463
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 3: very important in the early days, especially to make sure

464
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:48,040
Speaker 3: you're taking in as much data as possible to inform

465
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 3: the models and then to achieve the outcomes. And you know,

466
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,639
Speaker 3: then we can all debate. You know how you go

467
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 3: forward from there. But this has been critical to our

468
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 3: approach and it's allowed us to scale, and it's allowed

469
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 3: us to achieve these safety results of ninety percent fewer

470
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 3: serious injury causing crashes, and that is how you evaluate

471
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 3: whether or not this approach is working. And I know

472
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 3: there's a lot of discussion around costs, right, especially.

473
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:16,680
Speaker 2: When you think about economics at scale.

474
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:19,159
Speaker 3: The economics at scale, So of course we're laser focused

475
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 3: on bringing these costs down. If you have to bring

476
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:24,240
Speaker 3: the cost down once you achieve the safety because how

477
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 3: else do you actually know what the investment model for

478
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 3: the businesses if you haven't actually achieved the safety bar.

479
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,440
Speaker 3: And so that's what we're focused on. Achieving the safety bar.

480
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 3: Now we can drive the cost down because we know.

481
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 4: What it takes.

482
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 2: So let's end by me asking you this in case

483
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 2: I don't speak to you for another year. In a

484
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:46,359
Speaker 2: year's time, what are the metrics by which you, as

485
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,679
Speaker 2: a leader in this company, will have judged success. You

486
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 2: know you plan to launch in twenty cities, but you

487
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,879
Speaker 2: often point to different safety metrics and the miles driven internally.

488
00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 2: What are you going to be holding the teams to

489
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Speaker 2: account on.

490
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 3: By the end of twenty twenty six, we will be

491
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 3: doing over one million trips per week, and we will

492
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 3: be doing that across a host of.

493
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: US paid trips paid trips.

494
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,880
Speaker 3: We only talk about paid trips, and so we will

495
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,120
Speaker 3: be doing over one million paid trips per week by

496
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 3: the end of this year.

497
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: And that's the measurement of success in the near tim It's.

498
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 3: One of them, I think do having the safety culture

499
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 3: that we've had within the company.

500
00:26:27,359 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 4: It permeates through the data, but it starts.

501
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,920
Speaker 3: With how we are so disciplined about what we do

502
00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 3: and how we do it. It matters a lot to us,

503
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 3: and so making sure that we have that culture intact,

504
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 3: I think is the other way that we will continue

505
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 3: to measure our success.

506
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Speaker 2: That's way more co Ceo ta Keidra Malcana and that

507
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 2: does it. For this special bonus episode of Bloomberg Tech.

508
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,719
Speaker 2: Find us on all your favorite podcast platforms and subscribe

509
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 2: so you never miss an episode. And catch our live

510
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:59,160
Speaker 2: show every Monday through Friday at eleven am easton eight

511
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 2: am Pacific on Bloomberg Television.

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00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: I met Ludlow.

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00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and this is Bloomberg