Boris Sofman: Waymo, Cozmo, Self-Driving Cars, and the Future of Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #241

Boris Sofman is the Senior Director Of Engineering and Head of Trucking at Waymo, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car project. He was also the CEO and co-founder of Anki, a home robotics company. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Boris’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/bsofman
Boris’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsofman
Waymo’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/waymo
Waymo’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/waymo
Waymo’s Website: https://waymo.com/

PODCAST INFO:
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Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 – Introduction
1:08 – Robots in science fiction
6:49 – Cozmo
32:04 – AI companions
38:59 – Anki
1:04:33 – Waymo Via
1:36:10 – Sensor suites for long haul trucking
1:46:06 – Machine learning
2:04:03 – Waymo vs Tesla
2:14:38 – Safety and risk management
2:23:42 – Societal effects of automation
2:34:47 – Amazon Astro
2:39:12 – Challenges of the robotics industry
2:43:39 – Humanoid robotics
2:50:42 – Advice for getting a PhD in robotics
2:58:13 – Advice for robotics startups
3:09:19 – Advice for students

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