This week’s podcast is brought to you by Terawatt – purpose-built charging for autonomous vehicle fleets.

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In today’s episode, I’m speaking with Chris Paxton, author of It Can Think!, and a roboticist who's worked all across the industry (Zoox, Nvidia, Meta etc). He’s currently leading AI innovation at Agility Robotics, developing intelligent and useful humanoid robots.

Chris talks about his career journey, provides an insightful analysis of Waymo's autonomous vehicle advancements, comparing them with Tesla's approach, and gives a full break down of the cost components of Waymo's Zeekr vehicle.

Our discussion also touches on industry challenges, such as hardware sourcing, sensor integration, and compute requirements, providing a comprehensive understanding of the current state and future directions of robotics and autonomous vehicles.

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Chris Paxton

(01:58) What got Chris interested in robotics

(02:50) The inspiration behind Chris Paxton’s post about the Waymo Zeekr

(04:59) Details on the Waymo Zeekr – Cost, specs, assembly etc

(09:27) Chinese EV tariffs vs. the Waymo Zeekr

(12:03) Sensor costs and how they affect AV production

(13:20) What compute means and the chips behind our robotaxis

(14:59) How compute works in making autonomy a reality

(16:15) How is all of the gathered data integrated into the generalized driver?

(17:20) What is integration cost in robotaxi production?

(20:30) What areas of robotaxi production have the most room for cost reduction?

(22:28) How Waymo’s Zeekr robotaxis stack against their Jaguar I-PACE robotaxis

(25:18) How the costs of AV parts have changed over the years

(26:26) Thoughts on Tesla’s camera-only approach vs Lidar

(28:31) Downsides to having too much Hardware

(30:37) The highway operation challenge

(31:36) Waymo vs Tesla’s approach

(34:35) Insights on other AV companies

(36:09) Differences between the AV 1.0 and AV 2.0 approach

(39:49) Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Notes/Links

Link to Chris Paxton’s post about the Waymo Zeekr mentioned at (04:28) - The First Mass-Produced Robotaxi Is Here

Designing Charging Hubs for Autonomous Fleets

We are excited to partner with Terawatt, one of the leading providers of charging infrastructure. To learn more about Terawatt's network of AV charging hubs and track record of 99%+ uptime, reach out to Logan Szidik at lszidik@terawattinfrastructure.com

- Harry

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Breaking Down the Cost of a Waymo Zeekr With Chris Paxton

The Driverless Digest Podcast

Breaking Down the Cost of a Waymo Zeekr With Chris Paxton