Name: Insights: Waymo CEO Presents Self-Driving Car Technology
Uploaded: 2020-03-11
Duration: 5 min 23 s
Description: They've developed the software using real-world and simulated driving conditions. (January 2020)

[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: We wanted to give you a sense of what it felt like to actually be in a Waymo that was moving around the streets of Phoenix with absolutely no human in the driver's seat. [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 2: Driving by itself. SPEAKER 3: There's no driver, daddy. SPEAKER 2: Are you serious? SPEAKER 4: That is nice. SPEAKER 5: It's pretty crazy. It's like there's a ghost at the steering wheel. I feel like royalty being paraded around in this thing. SPEAKER 1: So it took six years to get one done. It took another two years to get three people riding simultaneously. It took another year to get 100 cars up and running simultaneously in Phoenix. That was 2018. And it's taken us really this next year and a half or so. The second half of 2019 was the time where we were confident enough to on a daily basis put our riders into these cars, enjoying this experience. We really got four different business lines that we work in right now. The first is ride-hailing. So it's very similar to what you'd experienced with Uber or Lyft or Didi where you hail a car with your Waymo app. And it comes to pick you up and drives wherever you want to go in our service area. Right now in Phoenix, this Waymo One, which you're talking about, serves an area larger than the city of San Francisco. It's a very substantially sized area in the southeast corner of Phoenix. And in that area, you can drive anywhere you want to from point A to point B using the Waymo app. We also have three other business lines. One of them is urban delivery. So using those same vehicles that we're employing in Phoenix to move goods from point A to point B. We also have long distance trucking, which is a very interesting business and a rather obvious application of the Waymo driver to heavy trucks to move lots of goods from point A to point B, primarily on highways. And then, of course, our automaker partners are very interested in deploying our technology in some sort of personally use application. So we're working with them on a way to sort of unlock that potential. So you've got about 1,500 now monthly active users who are using the service on a regular basis. Many of them use it every day to get to and from work and do whatever errands or things they might have to do in the Phoenix area. SPEAKER 6: So these people are living the full on Jetsons experience. They are summoning a robot car to come and get them and take them. SPEAKER 1: It's awesome. Yeah. And it's happening in southeast Phoenix right now. SPEAKER 6: Right now, you can go on your Lyft app to request one. SPEAKER 1: That's right. SPEAKER 6: I ask you when you're going to be expanding them outside of the Phoenix area. And when you do, will you also be able to do it through Lyft? SPEAKER 1: Yes. So right now we have a pilot with Lyft where you can hail a Waymo through the Lyft app. That's terrific. That so far is only available in Phoenix. We're considering moving that into other cities. And we'll also be moving, of course, the Waymo One service to other cities. And one place that you might imagine we would launch is California. But the Waymo driver needs to learn how to handle bad weather. So I was mentioning to Leon we were storm-chasing earlier this year. We sent a couple of cars to Miami during the hurricanes. We have a whole fleet of cars, 10 or 15 cars, maybe more in Michigan right now. And we enjoy lots of the Michigan weather. And we go up to the upper peninsula to make sure that we have lots of experience in snow and ice. But that comes later for us, right? We wanted to play safely. There are so many markets that we can deliver our service where the weather is great most of the time. That's where we should launch first and then move into more challenging weather conditions later. We believe very strongly that there's so much great infrastructure in cities for public transportation right now. But we are just not using it well enough. And one of the problems is sometimes it's hard for us humans to get to that existing public transportation. And so we've already engaged in discussions with cities about using the Waymo driver to help solve that problem. We can help move people from where they work or live to existing public transportation infrastructure hubs. We can do that very well. We can also deploy the Waymo driver in service of existing public transportation utilities, like buses. There's no reason why Waymo couldn't drive a bus and do a very good job at that. [INTERPOSING VOICES] resoundingly yes. SPEAKER 6: OK, resoundingly yes. But it doesn't sound like it's on the near-term game plan. You have other things on that your working on next month. SPEAKER 1: Our primary focus is really in service of all of these things. So like in many cases, I think, in this space, we run a little bit ahead of ourselves. And we imagine all of the applications. But if you don't have a driver that works, you don't have anything. And so Waymo focus has appropriately, I think, been on making the world's most experienced driver. Once we have that, it's fairly easy and mechanical to apply it to a car, to a truck, to a van, to a bus. 

Insights: Waymo CEO Presents Self-Driving Car Technology

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They've using real-world and simulated driving conditions.

Waymo CEO Presents Self-Driving Car Technology

They've developed the software using real-world and simulated driving conditions. (January 2020)

way wanted to give you a sense of what it felt like to actually be in a way, Mo that was moving around the streets of Phoenix with absolutely no human in the driver's seat. Well, I feel like royalty being paraded around this thing. So it took six years to get one done. It took another two years to get three people writing simultaneously. It took another year to get 100 cars up and running simultaneously in Phoenix. That was 2018 and it's taken us really this next year and 1/2 or so. The second half of 2019 was the time where we were confident enough to, on a daily basis, put our writers into these cars. Enjoying this experience really got four different business lines that work in right now. Right now. The first is ride hailing so service very similar to what you'd experience with uber or lift or D d, where you hail a car with your Waymo app and it comes to pick you up and drives you wherever you wanna go. In our service area. Right now in Phoenix, this way, no one which you're talking about, um, serves an area larger than the city of San Francisco. It's a very substantially sized area in the southeast corner of Phoenix, and in that area you can drive anywhere you want to from point A to point B using the way Moab. We also have three other business lines. One of them is urban delivery. So using those same vehicles that were employing in Phoenix to move goods from Point A to Point B, we also have long distance trucking, which is a very interesting business and rather out obvious application of the way move driver too heavy trucks to move lots of goods from point A to point B, primarily on highways on. And then, of course, our automaker partners are very interested in deploying our technology in some sort of personal use application. So we're working with them on the way up to sort of unlock that potential about 50 1500 now monthly active users. We're using the service on a regular basis. Many of them use it every day to get to and from work and do whatever errands or thinks they might have to do in the Phoenix area. So these people are living the full on Jetson's experience. They are summoning a robot car to come get them and take this. Awesome. Yeah, it's happening in southeast Phoenix right now. Right now. You can hail. You can help. You can go on your list. App to Rio to request one. That's right. I ask you when you're gonna be expanding them outside of the Phoenix area. And when you do, will you also be able to do it through lift? Yes. So right now we have a pilot with lift where you can hail away Mo through the lift out. That's terrific. That so far is only available in Phoenix. We're considering moving that into other cities on. We'll also be moving, of course, the way no one service to other cities and 11 place that you might imagine we would launch is California. But the way my driver needs to learn how to handle bad weather. So I was mentioning to Leon, we're storm chasing earlier this year, we send a couple of cars to Miami during the Hurricanes, and we son, um, we have a whole fleet of cars, 10 or 15 cars, maybe more, in Michigan right now. And we enjoy lots of the Michigan weathers and we go up to the opera penninsula to make sure that we have lots of experience in snow and ice. But that comes later for us, right? We want to deploy safely. There are so many markets that we can deliver our service where the weather is great most of the time. That's where we should launch first and then move into more challenging weather conditions later. We believe very strongly that there's so much great infrastructure in cities for public transportation right now, but we are just not using it well enough, and one of the problems is sometimes it's hard for us humans to get to that existing public transportation. And so we've already engaged in discussions with cities about using the way my driver to help solve that problem. We can help move people from where they work or live to existing public transportation infrastructure hubs. We can do that very well. We can also deploy the way my driver in service of existing public transportation utilities, like buses. There's no reason why Rameau couldn't drive a bus and do a very good job of that. There's no reason why resoundingly Yes. Okay, resulting yes, but it doesn't sound like it's on the near term game plan. You have other things on the you're working on. Our primary focus is, is really It's in service of all of these things. So, like in many cases, I think in this space we run a little bit ahead of ourselves and we imagine all the applications. But if you don't have a driver that works, you don't have anything. And so Waymo focus has appropriately, I think, Ben on making the world's most experienced driver. Once we have that, it's fairly easy and mechanical to apply it to a car, to a truck to a van, two of us.