Episode description

Self-driving cars have been on the horizon for quite some time. But, they might actually be here.

We got to ride around in one all over San Francisco with Waymo’s Chief Product Officer, Saswat Panigrahi.

We discussed so much, including the five levels of autonomy, the infamous LIDAR vs video debate, regulation, UX, and the role of AI in fine-tuning these models. But most importantly, if autonomy is here… now what?!

Topics Covered:

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 03:20 - A first look at Waymo
• 05:21 - 5 levels of autonomy
• 09:45 - Technology challenges
• 14:32 - LiDAR vs video debate
• 18:19 - How Waymo differentiates
• 19:01 - Technological unlocks on the horizon
• 20:39 - The role of AI in autonomous vehicles
• 25:37 - How Waymo views safety
• 32:05 - Collaborating with regulators
• 37:26 - Learnings from the first 2m miles
• 39:45 - Driving user retention
• 43:47 - Waymo’s expansion strategy
• 47:00 - Changing regulation
• 47:41 - Societal unlocks enabled by autonomy
• 52:21 - Will self-driving cars replace humans?
• 52:58 - Closing thoughts

Resources:

Check out Waymo: https://waymo.com/

Check out Waymo's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Waymo

Find Saswat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saswat101

Check out a16z's 8-part series on the autonomous vehicle ecosystem: https://a16z.com/2018/02/03/autonomy-ecosystem-frank-chen-summit/

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