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Waymo CEO John Krafcik (right) speaks at the WSJ D.Live Technical Conference in Laguna Beach, California.
Shara Tibken / CNET
It will take decades before autonomous cars are widespread on the roads – and even then, they will not be able to drive alone under certain conditions, said Tuesday the CEO of Waymo.
John Krafcik, head of the Autonomous Cars Unit of parent company Google, Alphabet, said that although driverless cars are "really here," they are not yet ubiquitous. And he does not think the industry will ever achieve the best driving rating: to be able to drive at any time of the year, regardless of weather conditions and weather conditions.
Instead, "autonomy will always have constraints," he said.
"It's really very difficult," said Krafcik. "You do not know what you do not know until you're really in it and trying to do things."
Waymo started working on autonomous vehicles in 2009 and was involved in a high-profile trial with Uber earlier this year about a stolen self-driving technology.
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Auto-completion: Waymo performs 8 million miles of test on …
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Autonomous cars are a hot topic in the automotive and technological industries. Toyota's automakers at Ford and Volvo all have projects underway. In addition to Google and Uber, other giants Silicon Valley, including Apple, Intel and Tesla Motors, rely on technology.
Autonomous cars still do not earn money, but that could soon change. Once considered a distant technology, driverless vehicles could travel the streets of the city in the next 10 years, transforming both the multi-billion dollar auto industry and Uber's thriving business.
Krafcik said on Tuesday that trucking is an area in which autonomous vehicles may soon appear in the coming years. The United States currently lacks about 50,000 truck drivers to provide logistics, which will result in a shortage of about 275,000 over the next two years, he said.
"The trucking shortage is now," said Krafcik. "Moving goods on highways going from one hub to another is quite simple."
Dara Kerr of CNET contributed to this report.
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