PJ Vogt

But there was one gift, which was that the team at this point had an overarching goal uniting them.

The DARPA challenge had told them, drive across this patch of desert.

The Larry 1K challenge told them, drive these 10 routes without human intervention.

The specificity of the mission meant they never had to squabble about why they were there.

By 2010, just a year in, the team was really on a roll.

They start knocking out routes.

Each one of the routes was unique and distinct and different and had its own challenges.

Down Route 1, Silicon Valley to Carmel.

The bridges run.

We had to go across all of the bridges in the Bay Area, starting in Mountain View, finishing crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

It's Chris Hermson in the car.

It's Anthony Lewandowski in the car.

I was in the car with Dimitri, Chris, and Anthony.

It was the four of us in the Prius.

They were figuring out the technology much faster than they thought they could.

The Larry 1K was set up like a video game, meaning they'd get to try the route over and over until they could complete it without a single human takeover.

Then they'd move on to the next one.

When they fail a route, they know what the car can't handle, so they go back and say...

You have to be better at doing X, Y, Z. And then we got back to the office.

We regrouped.