PJ Vogt

The Google Brain team, the deep learning people, started working with the driverless car team to use training data to help the computer driver learn things, like how to better predict when another car was about to suddenly switch lanes, how to more reliably spot pedestrians.

Over the years, as the car drove more miles, as the team gathered more data, plugged that data into their AI systems, and tweaked those systems, the engineers say the robot driver kept improving.

As they tested the car in new weather conditions, they discovered problems that required hardware fixes.

For instance, in Phoenix, Waymo had to design miniature wipers for their car's LiDAR sensors to deal with the dust storms and heavy rains.

In 2020, Waymo finally debuts to the public in Arizona.

In the years after, it'll roll out to 10 more American cities.

A funny consequence of Waymo's long development cycle is that the public's attitude towards Silicon Valley has just really changed in that time.

There's more suspicion towards Google than there was back in 2009 when the project first started.

And so now, many people look at the Waymo driver with a raised eyebrow, with a question immediately on their lips.

Chapter five.

Are you a good driver?

A fleet of white electric Jaguars covered in 40 different sensors, cameras, radar, LiDAR.

It's an expensive car, as much as $150,000 by some estimates.

In the news stories, you see the inside, where the human driver would normally sit.

There's an empty seat you're not allowed in.

With a steering wheel in front of it, vestigial, it turns itself.

The TV newscasters always use the same gee whiz tone.

They can never resist a Jetsons reference.

In every city, the influencers happen to record testimonials for their daily serving of clout.

So in today's video, I'm about to take my first ever driverless car.