Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Panigrahi: Waymo vehicles can see 360 degrees up to three football fields away

Saswat Panigrahi · Are Autonomous Vehicles Finally Here? Buckle up! · Jun 26, 2023 · at 10:29

Waymo Chief Product Officer Saswat Panigrahi details the perception range of Waymo's driverless vehicles during a ride-along interview with a16z host Catherine.

0:00 / 0:09exact quote · 9.8s
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“This car with those appendages, as you mentioned, can see three football fields away, 360 degree, and it's getting a snapshot multiple times a second.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Saswat Panigrahi

Insight
Debating LiDAR versus cameras is just choosing between wavelengths, says Waymo CPO
“Saying you love lidars and hate cameras or vice versa is saying you love one wavelength versus the other wavelength, right? It's not a fundamental thing.”
Saswat Panigrahi Jun 26, 2023 ▶ 1:00 Are Autonomous Vehicles Finally Here? Buckle up!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Panigrahi: Multi-sensor suites outperform camera-only autonomous driving systems
“Does the combination of these sensors position you better than individual. The answer is yes. We can show you that there are situations in which camera will be insufficient.”
Saswat Panigrahi Jun 26, 2023 ▶ 16:16 Are Autonomous Vehicles Finally Here? Buckle up!
Insight
Level 3 versus Level 4 autonomy is like driving versus flying
“No, no, I would say a vast difference even between level three and level four. Huge. It's almost a difference between driving and flying, I would say.”
Saswat Panigrahi Jun 26, 2023 ▶ 6:13 Are Autonomous Vehicles Finally Here? Buckle up!
Insight
Autonomous vehicles require full-stack hardware and software to maintain iteration speed
“And the technology, and it really required the full stack, right? We build the hardware, we build the software, because if you built just the software and waited for somebody else to deliver the hardware, the speed of learning, the speed of iteration that was …”
Saswat Panigrahi Jun 26, 2023 ▶ 9:13 Are Autonomous Vehicles Finally Here? Buckle up!
Disclosure
Panigrahi: Waymo dramatically reduced LiDAR hardware costs over two years
“The amount we have been able to cost down these LiDARs in the last two years is incredible.”
Saswat Panigrahi Jun 26, 2023 ▶ 17:10 Are Autonomous Vehicles Finally Here? Buckle up!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Google's early machine learning infrastructure investments created Waymo's competitive moat
“Really the breakthrough engineering that you sometimes need in AI is just having the raw infrastructure to intake all this data. The amount of data you have to learn to handle to build a really, you know, well-learned algorithm is pretty hard, and that's where…”
Saswat Panigrahi Jun 26, 2023 ▶ 26:07 Are Autonomous Vehicles Finally Here? Buckle up!
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