James Kuffner: Toyota Woven City, Robotics in Japan, Google Self-driving Car | Andreas Orthey #1

I recently talked with James Kuffner at the ICRA conference in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Topics included getting into Stanford, his contributions to robot motion planning, robotics in japan, the google self-driving car project, Woven city, and his advice on becoming successful.Content00:00 Introduction01:24 Background02:38 Getting into robotics04:55 Programming at 12 years old05:52 Getting into Stanford07:30 Robotics at Stanford12:19 From computer vision to motion planning13:59 RRT-Connect algorithm20:31 Is research in motion planning still valuable?22:48 Will LLMs deprecate planning?26:23 Timeline for truly intelligent robots28:10 Breakthroughs required for AI32:30 Cloud robotics34:47 Going to Japan37:04 Technological progress and craftsmanship in Japan39:34 Work culture in Japan43:49 Professor at Carnegie Mellon University46:03 Collaborations at CMU47:25 Self-driving project at Google51:53 Coding mastery at google53:51 Code search tool55:09 Vi versus Emacs56:27 Full self-driving58:44 Who is ahead in self-driving technology?01:01:06 Achieving level 5 autonomy01:04:51 Behavior of robot cars and the median driver01:06:30 Impact of self-driving on labor01:10:37 Biggest problems for society01:13:36 Woven City by Toyota01:15:41 Job loss after Fukushima earthquake01:18:01 A city from scratch01:19:29 Climbing mount Fuji01:20:42 Inventor garage01:23:11 Startup incubator and beyond01:23:57 Success definition01:26:18 Daily habits01:27:59 Pulling all-nighters01:30:00 Advanced Shakespeare01:30:58 Advice for early career researchers01:31:59 Value of books01:32:31 Linus Pauling: Change fields every 7 years01:33:37 Next big project01:34:34 Influential books01:36:59 The value of biographies01:38:23 Personal goal of 50 books per year01:39:43 Biggest contribution to scienceEpisode LinksSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/75jmWRsM7K2XkCiZr0zsNP?si=JauAqp1FQ5Ol19UPr1HHugApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/james-kuffner-toyota-woven-city-robotics-in-japan-google/id1812910570?i=1000706674948Podcast LinksYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/andreasortheyX/Twitter: https://x.com/andreas_ortheySpotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/andreasorthey/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aorthey/Support: https://buymeacoffee.com/aortheyPersonal Website: https://aorthey.comPodcast Website: https://aorthey.com/src/podcastErrata49:16 James wants to add that the CMU car went 7.32 miles and not about 17 miles in the first DARPA grand challenge.1:24:13 The success quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson and not E. Pugh. The original quote is: "What is success? To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch Or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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