Inside Waymo: The Long Road to Embodied AI & Self-Driving Cars
Automated Podcast 52:14
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Robotics has a habit of compressing timelines in theory and stretching them out in practice. Few people are better positioned to talk about that gap than Vincent Vanhoucke, whose work spans the early days of deep learning at Google and the ongoing challenge of scaling autonomous systems at Waymo.
Vincent Vanhoucke, distinguished engineer at Waymo and former leader at Google Robotics and Google Brain, joins Automated for a wide-ranging conversation on embodied AI, robotics, and autonomous driving.
From the early days of deep learning to today’s foundation models, Vincent breaks down why scaling is harder than innovation, how robotics and AI finally converged, and what humanoids can learn from the long road to self-driving cars.
Key Moments:
00:00 First-time Waymo riders and the psychology of autonomy
01:43 Recording a podcast inside a self-driving car
05:08 Why embodied AI is the next major AI wave
07:17 Making complex AI understandable to the public
09:16 From speech recognition to robotics
12:24 Teaching robots to generalize, not specialize
14:50 Generalist vs. specialist robots
17:16 Foundation models in physical AI
20:21 Shipping products vs. maximizing learning
23:44 Why autonomous driving took longer than expected
27:25 Startups, churn, and creative destruction in AI
28:59 Google X, robotics moonshots, and hard lessons
35:14 The legacy of Google Robotics
40:02 The explosion of robotics platforms
48:55 Why scaling is the hardest problem in robotics
50:15 Humanoids, safety, and the road ahead
Listen to Vincent’s podcast: @Waymo | AI in Motion https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCkt0hth826G9AtnOrQsPbKKD5JmdaMXb&si=Nes4oraGJT4d4bia
Connect with Vincent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanhoucke/
Find out when Waymo is coming to your town: https://waymo.com/
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at podcast@automate.org.
You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automate.org/podcast.
Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
You can also find us on:
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/
Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundup
Vincent Vanhoucke, distinguished engineer at Waymo and former leader at Google Robotics and Google Brain, joins Automated for a wide-ranging conversation on embodied AI, robotics, and autonomous driving.
From the early days of deep learning to today’s foundation models, Vincent breaks down why scaling is harder than innovation, how robotics and AI finally converged, and what humanoids can learn from the long road to self-driving cars.
Key Moments:
00:00 First-time Waymo riders and the psychology of autonomy
01:43 Recording a podcast inside a self-driving car
05:08 Why embodied AI is the next major AI wave
07:17 Making complex AI understandable to the public
09:16 From speech recognition to robotics
12:24 Teaching robots to generalize, not specialize
14:50 Generalist vs. specialist robots
17:16 Foundation models in physical AI
20:21 Shipping products vs. maximizing learning
23:44 Why autonomous driving took longer than expected
27:25 Startups, churn, and creative destruction in AI
28:59 Google X, robotics moonshots, and hard lessons
35:14 The legacy of Google Robotics
40:02 The explosion of robotics platforms
48:55 Why scaling is the hardest problem in robotics
50:15 Humanoids, safety, and the road ahead
Listen to Vincent’s podcast: @Waymo | AI in Motion https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCkt0hth826G9AtnOrQsPbKKD5JmdaMXb&si=Nes4oraGJT4d4bia
Connect with Vincent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanhoucke/
Find out when Waymo is coming to your town: https://waymo.com/
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at podcast@automate.org.
You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automate.org/podcast.
Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
You can also find us on:
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/
Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundup
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