i3 - July/August 2020 - 10

Tech
consistently improve the capabilities of the
Waymo Driver efficiently and rapidly.

Top: Waymo's truck
and Chrysler Pacifica
Left: Waymo riders
Right: Waymo's selfdriving Jaguar I-PACE
electric SUV 1

Q What are the benefits of autonomous

Q How is AI being used?

AI plays a crucial role in nearly every part
of our self-driving system, helping our cars
make sense of the world they see around
them, predict how others will behave, and
decide our next best move. With machine
learning, we can navigate nuanced and difficult situations; maneuvering construction
zones, yielding to emergency vehicles, and
giving room to cars that are parallel parked.
We can do this because we've trained our
ML models, using lots of different examples
from over 20 million miles we've driven on
public roads in more than 25 U.S. cities.
With this robust training and testing cycle,
we can rapidly improve our ML models, and
quickly deploy the latest nets on our selfdriving cars.

Q What are the biggest challenges for self-

driving vehicles?
We've been working on self-driving technology for more than 10 years now and we
have the benefit of that experience to know
that this technology will come to the world
step by step. Self-driving technology is so
complex and we've gotten to where we are
today because of advances in diverse fields
from sensing in hardware, to machine
learning. Many engineers see self-driving
as the most difficult technical challenge

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in robotics and machine learning today.
As we move forward, we uncover layers of
complexity along the way - the more you
know, the more you have to learn.
Over a decade in, our team is focused
on solving what we call the long-tail challenges. Back in 2009 we drove our first
10, 100 mile challenge routes in California
fully autonomously - now 11 years later in
2020, we're working to solve for those very
rare instances that a human driver may
never experience in a lifetime of driving.
That's why we've been taking a gradual
approach to introduce this technology to
the world.

Q What is the biggest misperception of

self-driving vehicles?
The most critical misperception is that
fully self-driving vehicles already exist
for consumer purchase. Advanced driver
assistance systems and active cruise
control products have been available for
years, yet neither represents fully selfdriving capabilities. Being able to drive
along a curving freeway 10 meters from
the car in front is not a technological feat
- doing the same in a hailstorm is. Real
self-driving systems will take far longer to
come to maturity without the crutch of a
human in the driving seat, they need to be
able to safely navigate through a myriad of
unpredictable road situations. That might
range from snowy weather, animals on the
road, aggressive drivers or intense traffic.
A true self-driving system is one that has

mastered every edge case, not simply tackling the simplest possible driving situations.

Q When will widespread adoption happen?

Self-driving is one of the most challenging
problems to solve in our generation and
we view it almost like running an ultramarathon. Complex problems take time,
and we've already been at this for 11+ years.
But we're making promising steps. Members
of the public in Phoenix, are using our
driverless cars with no human driver behind
the wheel with the Waymo app, as part of
Waymo One, our ride hailing service.
Since launching our early rider program
in 2017, we've served over 100,000 trips to
riders in the Phoenix area, and have over
1500 monthly active riders in Waymo One
since launching in December 2018. We
remain the only self-driving tech company
to have a commercial, public, autonomous
ride-hailing service.

Q Where do you see Waymo in the

next five years?
By focusing on the driver, we're building
what you could imagine as an operating
system of mobility - a safe, robust intelligent system designed to help many kinds
of vehicles navigate from point A to B safely.
That will likely involve personal vehicles,
ride hailing fleets and vehicles moving
goods and freight. We have multiple paths
to market and multiple ways to have an
impact making transportation safer and
more efficient.

Source: Waymo

driving for the elderly or disabled?
In the U.S. alone, there are three million
people over 40 who are blind or have low
vision. Additionally, 79% of seniors 65 and
over live in car-dependent communities.
Autonomous vehicles have the potential
to reshape the transportation landscape
for seniors and people with disabilities,
especially those individuals who cannot get
a driver's license today. Self-driving technology has the potential to provide millions
of people with accessibility and independence, creating new mobility options while
saving lives.
To fully realize this potential, we've
been working with and listening to the
disability community and advocates for
seniors to learn about the unique needs
of different riders. Through our Let's Talk
Self-Driving partners like the Foundation for
Senior Living and the Foundation for Blind
Children, we've made progress towards
several critical usability developments, like
accessible mobile app and support, audio
and visual cues and tools, and braille labels.

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - July/August 2020
