Dmitri Dolgov, co-CEO of Waymo, discusses consumer psychology and how rapidly passenger anxiety fades inside driverless robotaxis.
Prediction Open · timeframe Nov 2033
Dolgov: Autonomous taxis in most major US cities within 10 years
“I definitely agree with the latter, and I would not dismiss the former. 10 years is a, you know, reasonably long time, and, you know, things can happen nonlinearly.”
Assertion Supported
Google pivoted to full autonomy after test drivers slept at the wheel
“One was what we learned from people using the driver assist system. They would overtrust it. They, you know, would put on makeup and, you know, text and, you know, one guy actually fell asleep.”
Disclosure
Dolgov: Waymo accepts legal responsibility for actions of its autonomous driver
“For the actions of, you know, the Waymo driver. The responsibility, you know, lies, you know, with Waymo.”
Assertion Supported
Swiss Re study: Waymo eliminated bodily injury claims over 4 million miles
“That study that Swiss RE has done was very encouraging that when they looked at, you know, almost four million miles of, you know, our fully autonomous operation, they found that massive reduction in, you know, a hundred percent reduction in the bodily injury …”
Disclosure
Dolgov: Waymo never seriously considered manufacturing its own cars
“I don't think we ever seriously entertained building a car. It just never made sense, you know, to me, you know, or others to, you know, do that. Like we're not a car company. Building cars hard, right? There's many companies that, you know, spend a hundred ye…”
Assertion Supported
Waymo built custom LiDAR after off-the-shelf sensors proved too unreliable
“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 that generation had our own lighters and, you know custom sensor suite.”