Dmitri Dolgov: Waymo and the Future of Self-Driving Cars | Lex Fridman Podcast #147

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

December 20, 2020

Duration

2h 23m

Channel

Lex Fridman Podcast

Watch on YouTube

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📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Dmitri Dolgov is the CTO of Waymo, an autonomous vehicle company. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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EPISODE LINKS: Waymo's Twitter: https://twitter.com/waymo Waymo's Website: https://waymo.com PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 2:16 - Computer games 7:23 - Childhood 9:55 - Robotics 10:44 - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology 12:56 - DARPA Urban Challenge 23:16 - Waymo origin story 38:58 - Waymo self-driving hardware 47:31 - Connected cars 53:23 - Waymo fully driverless service in Phoenix 57:45 - Getting feedback from riders 1:05:58 - Creating a product that people love 1:11:49 - Do self-driving cars need to break the rules like humans do? 1:18:33 - Waymo Trucks 1:24:11 - Future of Waymo 1:37:23 - Role of lidar in autonomous driving 1:50:23 - Machine learning is essential for autonomous driving 1:54:25 - Pedestrians 2:01:02 - Trolley problem 2:05:30 - Book recommendations 2:16:56 - Meaning of life CONNECT:

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🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lex Fridman

  host

• Dmitri Dolgov

  guest

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Dmitri Dolgov, Dmitri Dolgov: Waymo and the Future of Self-Driving Cars | Lex Fridman Podcast #147 explores waymo CTO reveals hard-won lessons building fully driverless cars Dmitri Dolgov, CTO of Waymo, walks through the technical, historical, and product journey from the DARPA Urban Challenge to Waymo’s fully driverless ride-hailing service in Phoenix. He explains why Waymo pivoted from driver-assist to building a full replacement “driver,” and how custom hardware (LIDAR, radar, cameras) and large-scale machine learning underpin the system. Dolgov details the challenges of safety, perception, prediction, and mapping, plus the operational realities of running a commercial driverless service and trucking program. The conversation also touches on regulation, ethics (including the trolley problem), user experience design, and how advances like transformers in AI are reshaping autonomous driving.

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