“Fatalities Are Not Acceptable”: Witherite Law Group Responds to Waymo CEO’s Shocking Statement

In a moment that has sparked national concern over the ethics and safety of autonomous vehicles, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana recently stated at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 that “I think that society will” accept a death caused by one of her company’s robotaxis.

This comment, made in the context of a broader discussion on driverless technology, has drawn sharp criticism from safety advocates; including Amy Witherite, founding attorney of Witherite Law Group and a nationally recognized traffic-safety expert.

“The notion that any business would frame human death as an acceptable collateral cost of innovation is deeply disturbing,” said Witherite. “When the top executive of a company deploying autonomous vehicles says society will accept fatalities, that reveals a corporate culture where financial incentive and speed to market have overtaken public safety obligations.”

A Dangerous Incident Raises Alarms

The controversy follows a reported incident in the Atlanta area where a Waymo robotaxi illegally passed a stopped school bus with flashing red lights and an extended stop arm; while children were actively disembarking. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has since launched a formal investigation.

“The ability to recognize school bus stop arms and flashinglights while children are in vulnerable positions is fundamental,” Witherite added. “If the software fails in that scenario, if a human cannot intervene intime, we are looking at the consequences of a system built for scale ratherthan for safety.”

Corporate Profit vs. Public Safety

Witherite emphasized that this is not a theoretical debate; it’s a real-world safety issue involving children, public roads, and a company whose leadership appears to accept fatalities as part of the technological equation.

“We’re talking about children exiting a bus, an autonomous vehicle that supposedly ‘knows better,’ and a company whose CEO is saying fatalities are part of the equation. That’s corporate hubris in its most dangerous form.”

Key Questions for Waymo

With billions invested in the robotaxi economy and mounting pressure to deploy quickly, Witherite Law Group is calling for transparency and accountability:
  • Can Waymo prove its software meets a higher safety standard than human drivers in every scenario; including those involving children, emergency vehicles, and school zones?
  • Is the company prepared to disclose all incident data, root cause analyses, and software failure logs to demonstrate it is not relying on “acceptable losses”?
“Until autonomous-vehicle systems can demonstrate they areas safe or safer than the average human driver across the full range of public-road conditions, they should not be operating without direct human supervision,” Witherite said. “And no corporation should proceed with the quiet assumption that the public will tolerate someone being killed in the name of progress.”

About Witherite Law Group

Witherite Law Group, headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the nation’s leading law firms representing victims of roadway and vehicular collisions. Founded by Amy Witherite, the firm is committed to holding negligent companies accountable and driving systemic improvements in roadway safety.

 

‍