The Exchanges

Q and you were part of that founding team, which was at the time a secret project, Google's self-driving car project. And at that time, it's amazing to think, because it seems like ancient history now, you were given a charge by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, Um, you had two years to, uh, two years to essentially accomplish two things. Do you remember what they were?

A Yeah, I remember them very well. Uh, the first one was to drive a 100,000 miles in, uh, autonomous mode. That was, you know, way more than orders of magnitude, more than, you know, what anybody has done, uh, at that time. And the second one, and, you know, actually that one turned out to be more interesting and much more challenging, was to drive, uh, 10 routes. Each one was about a hundred miles long, and, you know, they were, you know, very carefully selected, I think, by, you know, by Larry and Sergey, uh, personally, and they were, you know, fairly devious in how they, uh, created them, uh, to make it interesting, um, and the goal was to drive each one from beginning to end in full autonomy, so with no human intervention, which at that time, you know, seemed You know, almost impossible. I remember we had a lot of people, you know, even experts in the field, you know, laugh at us when we attempted it.

AI assessment note: “The first one was to drive a 100,000 miles... And the second one”

Q Yeah, I can imagine. Um, okay, so at that point, you and your team had built this, this third generation version of the Waymo driver that could actually take a fully autonomous trip, which is, is a big deal. Um, and you were essentially betting that this Vehicle would keep passengers safe on a real, on real city streets, right? Like what, what went into the safety design?

A That's right. That's right. Uh, it was also that early phase is what kind of forced us to start thinking about this very fundamental question, like of what does it mean for a self-driving fully autonomous vehicle to be ready? Like we set out on this path in 2013, right? So, okay, you know, we're gonna, you know, we are gonna need a car. It needs to have, you know, a bunch of safety systems. Does that exist? No. Okay. Well, let's design one and work, you know, with partners to manufacture it. So we put a lot of Thought and work, uh, into making it safe. It had, like, a foam, you know, front. It had a plexiglass window. The sensor pods, you know, were attached with magnets, so they, you know, could detach if something were to happen. Uh, and then, you know, we, uh, the sensors at that time, you know, didn't have the level of reliability or capability that we would need, that we would trust, you know, to go to full autonomy. So we build, you know, uh, that generation had our own lighters and, you know, um, custom Uh, sensor suite. And then of course the software that we had to build, like that, that none of that existed.

AI assessment note: “It had, like, a foam, you know, front. It had a plexiglass window.”

Q of these things? Um, and so I have my answer. So what's your answer when people say that to you? Like, this just seems terrifying for a machine to drive you around a city. Like, it seems so scary. Like, it could, you know, you could just go haywire and drive off a bridge or something. What do you, what do you say to people when they ask you that?

A Oh, you know, I, I, at this point, I think I'm much more anxious about human drivers than I am about the Waymo driver. So I have, you know, full confidence, but of course, you know, I've been, uh, in those cars, you know, many, many times, you know, 100,000 of times over the years. But what we see with other people, like, it's very natural to have that anxiety. It's a very different, very new system and new product. Uh, but we, what we very consistently see, and I, I guess I would love if To hear if that matches your experience, but once people get in the car, just, you know, after a couple of minutes, they get very comfortable and they go back to, you know, doing whatever they want to be doing, like, you know, back on the phone and check. Yeah, exactly.

AI assessment note: “I think I'm much more anxious about human drivers than I am about the Waymo driver.”

Q So, so when you did finally accomplish it, did you, were you guys able to have a party and celebrate, or was it just like, nice job, now we gotta, we gotta keep it quiet?

A Yes, both. We celebrated, and, you know, it felt like it was a big accomplishment, and, but yeah, we kept it quiet. But, you know, like, that's what made it so incredibly fun. I guess, you know, that, that phase was one of my favorite phases of the whole project. It's like, you know, the early days of a startup, you're up against what might seem like an impossible goal, but it's very clearly defined, right? You have a very clear milestone, a very clear Uh, goal. You are singularly focused on it. You have a small team, you know, everybody's working around the clock, 24, seven and, you know, sprinting together. And every day and every hour you are, you're prototyping, right? You're learning. Uh, so you can move incredibly fast and like every day of every hour, you're making amazing progress and you're learning your things. So that was, you know, that was a tool and that was a blast.

AI assessment note: “Yes, both. We celebrated, and... but yeah, we kept it quiet.”