Keep pulling the thread on Dmitri Dolgov.
Waymo provides over 50,000 fully autonomous rides each week.
Waymo's AI development process starts with a large, off-board foundation model that understands the physical world and driving.
Waymo's foundation model is specialized into three large, off-board "teacher" models: the Waymo Driver, the Simulator, and the Critic.
Waymo uses a distillation process where large off-board "teacher" models train smaller, more efficient "student" models that can run on the vehicle's hardware.
Waymo augments its end-to-end learned representations with structured, intermediate representations like objects and roads to improve simulation and add safety validation layers.
Waymo plans to begin operations in London and Tokyo in the current year.
The fifth generation of the Waymo Driver represented a discontinuous jump from the fourth generation by making AI the core backbone of the system.
Waymo's sixth-generation system is built on a custom vehicle platform, referred to in the transcript as the "Ojai platform."
Waymo's custom-designed sixth-generation vehicle is expected to be available for rides this year.
The cost of Waymo's sixth-generation hardware is a fraction of the previous generation's and is comparable to a high-end Advanced Driver-Assistance System (ADAS).
Waymo conducts approximately 500,000 fully autonomous rides per week.
Waymo's fleet drives over four million fully autonomous miles per week.