When trucks drive themselves with Chris Urmson of Aurora

How I Built This · 20 Jul 2023 · 40m

What this episode covers

Chris Urmson, founder of Aurora, discusses his journey from the DARPA Grand Challenges to leading Google's self-driving car project and finally launching Aurora to automate long-haul trucking. He explains Aurora's 'First Light' LIDAR technology, the distinction between Level 2 assistance and Level 4 autonomy, and the company's strategy of selling an autonomous driving system rather than building vehicles. Urmson outlines the safety case, regulatory engagement, and the phased rollout plan for driverless trucks on specific US freight corridors.

Mentioned

Companies
Aurora, Waymo, Google, Carnegie Mellon, DARPA, FedEx, Tesla, Stanford, GM, Continental, Hyundai, Kia, Paccar, Schneider, Hirschback, Warner, FMCSA, NHTSA
Products
First Light, Peterbilt

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Moore's Lobby · 43m

    Ep. 33 | From Autonomous Golf Carts to Semis: The Journey to the Self-Driving Truck

    Brandon Moak, CTO and co-founder of Embark Trucks, explains how he and co-founder Alex Rodrigues scaled an autonomous driving system from a student golf cart project to a $5 billion public company. Moak details the technical stack, including the fusion of LIDAR, radar, and cameras, and the strategic decision to focus on hub-to-hub highway trucking to avoid the complexity of urban passenger vehicles. He discusses the operational challenges of scaling, including adapting to COVID-19 restrictions and mitigating chip shortages through risk-buying, while emphasizing Embark's safety-first approach and software-as-a-service business model.

  • Catalyst · 43m

    Cracking the code on autonomous trucking

    Eyal Cohen, founder and CEO of Humble Robotics, explains why autonomous trucking has lagged behind passenger vehicles due to the high stakes of highway edge cases and the limitations of retrofitting existing tractors. He details Humble's clean-sheet design of a fully cabless, electric Class 8 truck that combines the tractor and trailer into a single smart platform to optimize unit economics and safety. Cohen discusses the company's shift from LiDAR-heavy systems to a camera-centric approach leveraging Visual Language Models (VLMs) and the regulatory challenges of deploying a vehicle with no windshield or steering wheel.

  • The Robot Report Podcast · 44m

    Nuro navigates to fully autonomous driving

    Andrew Clare, CTO of Nuro, explains the company's pivot from solely operating autonomous delivery vehicles to licensing its 'Nuro Driver' technology to automotive OEMs and mobility providers. He details the technical differences between urban and highway driving, emphasizing that highway autonomy requires long-range perception and rapid reaction to off-nominal events, whereas urban driving demands handling complex dynamic behaviors like pedestrians and cyclists. Clare highlights Nuro's safety culture, its federal exemption for occupantless vehicles, and its redundant sensor stack of LiDAR, camera, and radar, while clarifying that the company's North Star remains Level 4 autonomy rather than pursuing unrestricted Level 5.

  • The Robot Report Podcast · 1h 06m

    Kodiak Robotics & autonomous trucks, Anthony Levandowski going to jail

    Daniel Goff, head of policy at Kodiak Robotics, explains the company's 'middle mile' autonomous trucking strategy, focusing on highway operations between Dallas and Houston to simplify the technical challenge compared to robotaxis. Tyler Mantle, co-founder of the Ventilator Project, discusses the rapid development of the 'Era' low-cost ventilator, highlighting the use of 3D printing for rapid prototyping and partnerships with firms like Mass Robotics and Latham & Watkins to navigate FDA regulations and supply chain scaling. The hosts also cover the sentencing of former Google executive Anthony Levandowski for stealing Waymo trade secrets and a remote teleoperation demo of Boston Dynamics' Spot robot.

  • The Robot Report Podcast · 1h 08m

    Why did Aurora buy Uber ATG?; Robotics thriving in Pittsburgh

    Joel Reed, interim executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, discusses the growth of the Pittsburgh robotics cluster, its strong ties to Carnegie Mellon University, and the thriving autonomous vehicle ecosystem. The hosts then analyze Aurora Innovation's acquisition of Uber's Advanced Technology Group (ATG), debating the strategic rationale behind the deal given Uber's financial struggles and Aurora's pivot to autonomous trucking. Finally, they cover AutoX's launch of fully driverless robotaxis in Shenzhen and a study on privacy risks associated with robot vacuum LIDAR sensors.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by How I Built This. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.