00:06:51 · Ruchi Sanghvi, Dmitri Dolgov, Aditya Agarwal
[00:06:51] S1: Okay. [00:06:51] S0: There's always a, you know, thanks, Waymo. Bye. And because of the the the social and the interactive nature of this whole driving task, I think it's natural that, you know, people ascribe some human characteristics to it and they kinda wanna, you know, interface with it. It kind of... Sometimes it cuts both ways. You know, sometimes, you know, it... Some people are kinder. They're like, you know, too. Oh, wow. Yeah. And, you know, they wave, they say thank you, they say hello. Some people are more aggressive side, and the one I... Yeah. There's a little bit of a, you know, bullying, know, human driver, and they would test the limits. So kinda like how, you know, maybe it's a bit of a litmus test of, like, how you behave, you know, with a Waymo is how you behave [00:07:34] S2: How you're gonna behave watching. On the subject of essentially user behavior within cars, I'm curious what kind of longitudinal behavior patterns you have seen as people get more relaxed, more comfortable being in a Waymo. Do you find that they tend to essentially either take longer trips, take more trips with people? I am curious, as we have now started to grow up with this technology over multiple years, what kinds of behavior patterns are you seeing, for instance, within San Francisco that might be pretty different relative to, you know, when
00:07:34 · Aditya Agarwal, Dmitri Dolgov
[00:07:34] S2: How you're gonna behave watching. On the subject of essentially user behavior within cars, I'm curious what kind of longitudinal behavior patterns you have seen as people get more relaxed, more comfortable being in a Waymo. Do you find that they tend to essentially either take longer trips, take more trips with people? I am curious, as we have now started to grow up with this technology over multiple years, what kinds of behavior patterns are you seeing, for instance, within San Francisco that might be pretty different relative to, you know, when [00:08:04] S0: it first came out? We see people using them for, you know, all kinds of trips. There's, you know, commuting. Get up to work. Once you get into it, I think you... I'm kind of curious to hear your experience, but, you know, I hear that from a lot of people, I feel that myself, is, you know, you get your time back. It's like, oh, yeah. But like teleportation. You're... Because you're working on something, and then you get up in the car and you continue doing what you're doing. Yep. Right? So I think that [00:08:34] S2: It's pretty incredible. Literally, soon as... Because I take Zoom calls or, you know, kind of like video conference calls every day from from the car, and the first thing that people say, are you in Waymo? I'm like, yes. That's why you can see my hands.
00:08:34 · Aditya Agarwal, Dmitri Dolgov
[00:08:34] S2: It's pretty incredible. Literally, soon as... Because I take Zoom calls or, you know, kind of like video conference calls every day from from the car, and the first thing that people say, are you in Waymo? I'm like, yes. That's why you can see my hands. [00:08:47] S0: WFW. Right? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Waymo. Yeah. And people, know, take them on social trips, you know, with your family or with your partner. Yeah. You not having to share the space with a stranger Makes a huge difference. Private conversations. Yeah. You can relax. You know, people take them alone, and, you know, you get to blast your music. Oh, yeah. Sing your lungs out. So you got by, [00:09:13] S2: like, music sync up, get the Spotify going. Yeah. Exactly. [00:09:16] S0: You can... You get... Yeah. This is... And this... All these are properties of the... Like, you own the space. You own the space. Or, you know, interviews. I guess that's the that's the new You it. New product use case. [00:09:28] S2: What can we look forward to as, you know, you know, I've only been in the Ojai a couple of times, but, like, you know, what kinds of things are you innovating on with the new the new vehicle in terms of the form factor, in terms of the physical kind of space within the car,
00:09:28 · Aditya Agarwal, Dmitri Dolgov
[00:09:28] S2: What can we look forward to as, you know, you know, I've only been in the Ojai a couple of times, but, like, you know, what kinds of things are you innovating on with the new the new vehicle in terms of the form factor, in terms of the physical kind of space within the car, [00:09:42] S0: and so on? So there's two interesting things about the Ojai. First of all, it's a custom designed vehicle Yep. And designed with the the rider in mind. And, you know, the second one is that the... It's powered by what we call the sixth generation of the Waymo Driver, which is, you know, an evolution of the hardware and the software that runs on it. But on the vehicle itself, like I said, it's all about the rider experience. Right? It's not designed around the driver. It's designed around the rider. Yep. So it starts... You know, it has these sliding doors that open up wide and make it really easy to get in and out. It is very spacious in the back. [00:10:21] S2: Yes. It is. It's super spacious. [00:10:22] S0: Of a, you know, living room experience, like Yeah. You know, fully stretched out, which you can't quite do in the in the eye base.
00:10:22 · Dmitri Dolgov, Aditya Agarwal
[00:10:22] S0: Of a, you know, living room experience, like Yeah. You know, fully stretched out, which you can't quite do in the in the eye base. [00:10:28] S2: San Francisco as a city kinda goes through its ups and downs. And the city is obviously kind of had a hard time during COVID. It's doing better today. One But of the things I often wonder about is that it's pretty amazing that Waymo kind of first got its urban kind of like setup in San Francisco. So perhaps, like, tell me, was that a conscious... Like, is it just a question of proximity that you happen to be in San Francisco because, you know, the the offices are here? Or is there anything particular about being in this city? Or was it, like, easier to do in terms of regulation and so on? How come it was San Francisco first? [00:11:01] S0: I would say yes to all of the above Okay. Except maybe, you know, the part about regulation. But it was... And it's a it's a great market. Okay. So if you look at the, you know, commercial potential, it is massive. It's, you know, one of the top cities. It's true in The US and, yeah, actually worldwide. Number one. Number two, it's... There's a lot of complexity when it comes to the core test of driving. Sure. So, you know, we wanted to learn and improve the core capabilities of the Waymo Driver as fast as possible, and this was a great place [00:11:35] S2: to be. So being in this space would allow you to kind of feel confident. Right? [00:11:38] S0: Yeah. And you did mention that it is, you know, close to home, and that that is a very important [00:11:43] S2: Makes a
00:11:43 · Aditya Agarwal, Dmitri Dolgov
[00:11:43] S2: Makes a [00:11:43] S0: big difference. You want, like... Yeah. You want, you know, your team to use their product, right, to be excited about it, to experience any limitations of it. That that matters tremendously. [00:11:52] S2: Yeah. Maybe last question for this segment. I'm curious, Dmitri, as you are in a Waymo, are you constantly noticing all of the ways that it could... You know, it is either going right or perhaps not going as right as you hoped? Like, are you kind of constantly in a critic mode as you are kind of, like, riding these cars? Not on [00:12:10] S0: the I PACE anymore. Okay. Honestly, I tend to... I I I used to. I, you know [00:12:14] S2: So you're already living in the future, basically. [00:12:16] S0: Yeah. That's my more of a... When when I PACE, I just use it in my space. I work. I'm on a phone call. I I... They made me... I'm relaxing and, like, I would have, you know, my eyes closed and be, you know, taking a quick nap or meditating. In the all high, especially in the early days as we're bringing it up, everything... I I pay a lot of attention to every little detail from the driving behaviors to the, you know, driving comfort to any issues with the vehicle platform itself. I see. So that... Yeah. My mind naturally goes there on the new thing.