Waymo robotaxis are so safe that, according to the company’s data, its driverless vehicles are involved in 91 percent fewer crashes compared to human-operated vehicles.

And yet the the company is bracing for the first time when a Waymo does kill somebody — a moment its CEO says society will accept, in exchange for access to its relatively safer driverless cars.

“We really worry as a company about those days,” said Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on Monday during TechCrunch‘s Disrupt summit, as reported by SFGate. “You know, we don’t say ‘whether.’ We say ‘when.’ And we plan for them.”

“I think that society will,” she said in answer to a question on whether the public is prepared for a Waymo to cause a death. “I think the challenge for us is making sure that society has a high enough bar o

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