Daphne de Jong learned to fly a plane before he could drive a car, and his task at Waymo, an autonomous driving software editor, is to make sure that very soon no one is driving again.
de Jong is an aerospace engineer for education and an adventurer at heart. Having flown planes (including advertising jets) since the age of 16 and climbed the world’s most damaging mountains (reached the top of Mount Everest in May 2019) that maximised us the consequences of the threat and how to save it.
“It’s about safety. It doesn’t sound very sexy, and I know it,” he said of the similarities between aviation and the structure of autonomous vehicles.
In a recent interview with Observer, de Jong revealed the boring and rigorous procedure of how Waymo builds his autonomous driving formula and whether the other people who build it actually accept it as true with it. climbing is.
From the insider’s point of view, to what extent do you think we are away from autonomous driving on open roads, as long as the regulations are a problem?
We already operate at level four of autonomy, which is completely autonomous in urban areas, we have the Waymo One program in Arizona where we have a lot of consumers who use our service on a daily basis, so I would say that we already have autonomous cars on public roads It’s about how we can temporarily expand the existing service to succeed in more people.
Consumer surveys have shown that most Americans still suspect autonomous driving generation. For example, an AAA survey last year found that 70% of Americans were afraid to drive a fully autonomous car. Since you work directly with other people who build the car. “spirit” of self-driving cars, how confident do engineers feel in the generation in its current stage?You’re going to let a car drive you?
Interesting question! I think it will depend on who you are asking and which component of the software progression you are running on. In general, Waymo engineers have some confidence in the security point of our software, as the procedure evolves and the point of transparency is very important. High.
I think we’ve done a smart job in simulations, which are a key detail of self-driving cars, drones and everything you drive alone.
We perform large amounts of simulations on new features to perceive their impacts on safety. We’ve traveled 15 billion kilometers in simulation. That’s a huge number by industry standards. We also have a giant check in California where we simulate more “real world” scenarios, such as driving on the road with skaters.
There’s nothing that makes corporations like Waymo don’t have the criteria when it comes to security. Then it makes sense to trust us with this kind of thing.
It comes from an aeronautical training, how do you move your delight and skills as a pilot to the structure of autonomous driving technology?
There are so many parallels between autonomous driving and air driving. As you can imagine, these are incredibly security-oriented jobs. For example, when express levers are operated on a moving aircraft, action is critical to safety. The same goes for the road. There are all those other road users besides the passengers in your car. This is the stress point you don’t feel when making other products for customers.
It’s about security. It doesn’t sound very sexy and I know, what I like most about this is that you don’t go from a vehicle completely driven by humans to a completely autonomous vehicle overnight, you have to go through many steps, where you compare and things step by step.
What about mountaineering? You’ve climbed some of the world’s most damaging mountains, adding Everest. Do you have similarities between that and what you do in Waymo?
Absolument. Il there are so many climbing tactics: climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, mountaineering, etc. What I like the most is expedition climbing, where you pass somewhere for a long time to achieve a wonderful pass.
As it is a long journey, you have to prepare and locate the right equipment, you want to perceive the country you are going to, how it is growing, how many appliances and food to carry, whether and how much oxygen you want to bring, and how to exercise for the ascent.
And then there’s the dynamics of the team. I feel much safer climbing with other people I feel comfortable admitting that I have come to my bar or that I can not do anything else, it is vital to have this point of honesty and trust. one project, the more we can save you and them when they come up. It is very similar to the aeronautical culture and our culture of painting in Waymo.
Which facets of autonomous driving are the least understood by the public?
I think one of the things we’re communicating most to the public is the perspective of self-driving cars. Especially with COVID-19 right now, I’d like us to have self-driving cars in more places so other people don’t have to worry about driving. a taxi so much.
And even in general times, there are 20% of other people in the US. But it’s not the first time They can’t easily reach positions because they’re disabled or can’t drive completely. Autonomous driving will provide a fair solution. This is just one example.
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