So five years into John Krafcik’s gig as CEO, how are things going at Waymo?

Well, they’re just starting to ramp up on road testing after shutting down for two months. That’s good news. John says the time off road doesn’t matter, because Waymo has so many miles in simulation. Of course, a simulation can’t come close to capturing the complexity of the real world.

And what about that whole virus thing? Any sense on whether that will impact Waymo’s plan to make everyone give up their car and ride around in a Google owned Robotaxi?

So… now that people need a clean personal car, Waymo is only for people who don’t have a car? How are you going to pay off your $400,000 Mom’s self-driving minivan with a customer base that can’t afford their own car? It puts a hard upper bound on what you can charge before it makes more economic sense to just go grab a used Toyota and drive yourself.

Is it just me, or does he sound really nervous? Almost like he’s about to cry?

And guess where Waymo’s CEO started his career? At Tesla’s Fremont plant, back when it was NUMI! Kind of ironic that the Robotaxis that run Waymo out of business will be built at the factory where Waymo’s CEO first got started.

Wondering what kind of car Waymo’s CEO is driving around in five years into the job? Wonder no more: John Krafcik’s “most recent acquisition” is a beautiful green Porsche 911 GT3.

Weird, why doesn’t he just take a Waymo to work?

Anyway, I don’t mean to pick on Waymo. It’s just that the supposed “leader” in self-driving has no plan to bring their product to market –– at least not one that makes any sense.

Congratulations to John Krafcik on year five as Waymo’s CEO. Who knows, maybe this will be the year they finally launch to the public. If they do, I’ll be on my way down to Chandler, Arizona faster than you can say “terrible unit economics”.