Waymo's Dmitri Dolgov: 20 Million Rides and the Road to Full Autonomy
In a Nutshell
Waymo co-founder Dmitri Dolgov recounts his journey from DARPA challenges and early Google self-driving efforts to achieving 20 million fully autonomous rides across 11 cities, powered by a multimodal foundation world model that drives end-to-end from sensors to actions while fueling simulators and critics. The sixth-generation hardware enables rapid scaling—doubling from 100M to 200M miles in six months—with Waymo proving 13x safer than humans for serious injuries, exemplified by superhuman maneuvers like LiDAR-detected pedestrian saves. Future plans target global expansion to cities like London and Tokyo, emphasizing persistent execution for full autonomy and saving lives amid 1.19M annual road deaths.
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Host introduces Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo founder in AI for almost 20 years, persistent through great and tough times. Audience poll: many have ridden in Waymo, love the experience. Dolgov confirms he uses it daily.
Dolgov born in Soviet Union, raised in States, attended Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (same school as parents). Traveled: year in Japan, high school in States, college in Russia for math and physics. Shaped technical foundation and ability to learn independently.
Earned PhD in AI. In 2005, joined DARPA Grand Challenge and Urban Challenge. Light switch moment: technology interesting, mission powerful, hands-on product. Never looked back.
Started 2009 at Stanford Automotive Lab (host worked on solar car side). First years: learning problem space for public roads. Goals: drive 100,000 miles in full autonomy; 10 routes (100 miles each, difficult Bay Area routes) end-to-end without intervention (safety driver present). Small team of ~12, worked 24/7, coding/hardware daytime, testing nights. Achieved in 18 months.
From impossible goals to hundreds of millions of miles today.
Early days most fun professionally: momentum, progress every hour, doing everything (hardware setup, sensor calibration, pose estimation, core software/algorithms, tools/UIs/user experience). Convinced team to pursue fully autonomous product.
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