# Ep. 22 | Cruise's Sr. VP of Engineering, Mo ElShenawy, on Developing Autonomous Vehicles

- Show: [Moore's Lobby](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby)
- Published: 2021-04-15
- Length: 53m
- Episode: 7
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle
- Listen: https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/podcast/ep-22-promises-challenges-realities-autonomous-vehicles-mo-elshenawy-cruise-senior-vp-of-engineering

## Summary

Mo ElShenawy, Senior VP of Engineering at Cruise (a GM subsidiary), discusses the engineering challenges of developing fully autonomous vehicles (L4/L5). He explains why Cruise targets San Francisco's complex environment to accelerate learning and details the hardware stack, including LiDAR, radar, and cameras, fused for perception and prediction. ElShenawy emphasizes that because state-of-the-art literature cannot yet solve L4/L5 driving, Cruise is inventing new algorithms and building a massive simulation and data infrastructure to ensure safety and scale.

## Chapters

- [0:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle#t=1) Introduction and Mo ElShenawy's Background
- [4:32](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle#t=272) Career Philosophy: Impact Over Tech for Tech's Sake
- [15:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle#t=933) Cruise's Strategy: Starting with the Hardest Problem in San Francisco
- [22:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle#t=1323) The Autonomous Vehicle Stack: Perception, Prediction, and Planning
- [31:34](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle#t=1894) Safety, Trust, and the Rigor of Testing and Simulation
- [40:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle#t=2449) Mission, Sustainability, and Future Commercialization

## Topics

- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Robotics & autonomy](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/robotics-and-autonomy)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Energy & climate tech](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/energy-and-climate-tech)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Cruise (company)
- General Motors (company)
- Honda (company)
- Microsoft (company)
- Amazon (company)
- Origin (product)
- LiDAR (chip)
- radar (chip)
- cameras (chip)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [HIBT Lab! Cruise: Kyle Vogt](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-10-27-hibt-lab-cruise-kyle-vogt) (How I Built This)
- [Cruise's VP of robotics on SF robotaxi operations](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-robot-report-podcast/2022-03-03-cruises-vp-of-robotics-on-sf-robotaxi-operations) (The Robot Report Podcast)
- [The future of driving is autonomous with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2023-11-23-the-future-of-driving-is-autonomous-with-dmitri-dolgov-of-waymo) (How I Built This)
- [CES 2020, Day 3: IC Vendors Talk Self-Driving | Mobileye’s Discovery | Toyota’s Smart City](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2020-01-08-ces-2020-day-3-ic-vendors-talk-self-driving-mobileyes-discovery-toyotas-smart-ci) (EE Times Current)
- [S6E40 Matt Puchalski | Vision Inspection, Autonomous Vehicles, & Graduating Y Combinator](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-10-03-s6e40-matt-puchalski-vision-inspection-autonomous-vehicles-graduating-y-combinat) (Being an Engineer)

## Citing this page

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