#241 – Boris Sofman: Waymo, Cozmo, Self-Driving Cars, and the Future of Robotics
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About this episode
<p>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:<br />
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<p><b>EPISODE LINKS:</b><br />
Boris’s Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/bsofman">https://twitter.com/bsofman</a><br />
Boris’s LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsofman">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsofman</a><br />
Waymo’s Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/waymo">https://twitter.com/waymo</a><br />
Waymo’s YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/waymo">https://www.youtube.com/waymo</a><br />
Waymo’s Website: <a href="https://waymo.com/">https://waymo.com/</a></p>
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<p><b>OUTLINE:</b><br />
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.<br />
(00:00) – Introduction<br />
(07:32) – Robots in science fiction<br />
(13:13) – Cozmo<br />
(38:28) – AI companions<br />
(45:23) – Anki<br />
(1:10:56) – Waymo Via<br />
(1:42:34) – Sensor suites for long haul trucking<br />
(1:52:30) – Machine learning<br />
(2:10:26) – Waymo vs Tesla<br />
(2:21:02) – Safety and risk management<br />
(2:30:06) – Societal effects of automation<br />
(2:41:11) – Amazon Astro<br />
(2:45:35) – Challenges of the robotics industry<br />
(2:50:03) – Humanoid robotics<br />
(2:57:06) – Advice for getting a PhD in robotics<br />
(3:04:37) – Advice for robotics startups<br />
(3:15:43) – Advice for students</p>