# Episode 136: Making driverless vehicles smarter - Shimon Whiteson

- Show: [Robot Talk](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk)
- Published: 2025-12-05
- Length: 33m
- Episode: 136
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson
- Listen: https://ukrobotics.libsyn.com/episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson

## Summary

Shimon Whiteson, a Professor at the University of Oxford and Senior Staff Research Scientist at Waymo, explains how deep reinforcement learning and imitation learning are used to make driverless vehicles smarter. He details the acquisition of his spinout company, Latent Logic, by Waymo in 2019 to improve simulation realism by modeling human road users. Whiteson discusses Waymo's multimodal sensor architecture (cameras, lidar, radar), the importance of data curation for rare safety-related conflicts, and the company's patient, capital-intensive strategy that has led to its commercial robotaxi leadership.

## Chapters

- [0:07](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=7) Introduction: Shimon Whiteson and Waymo
- [2:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=168) Deep Reinforcement Learning and Imitation Learning
- [6:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=397) Latent Logic Acquisition and Simulation Agents
- [11:26](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=686) Data Curation and Rare Event Handling
- [13:19](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=799) Waymo's Strategy: Patience, Capital, and Multimodal Sensors
- [16:34](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=994) The Deep Learning Revolution and Data Flywheel
- [18:34](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=1114) Classical Path Planning vs. Reinforcement Learning
- [22:25](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=1345) Stochasticity and Non-Stationarity in Human Behavior
- [29:36](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2025-12-05-episode-136-making-driverless-vehicles-smarter-shimon-whiteson#t=1776) Remaining Challenges: Long Tail, Transfer Learning, and Partnerships

## Topics

- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Robotics & autonomy](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/robotics-and-autonomy)
- [Sensors & measurement in products](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sensors)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Sourcing & supply chain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sourcing-and-supply-chain)

## Most relevant to

large enterprises

## Mentioned

- Waymo (company)
- Latent Logic (company)
- Google X (company)
- Uber (company)
- Lyft (company)
- lidar (other)
- cameras (other)
- radar (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [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)
- [Ep. 22 | Cruise's Sr. VP of Engineering, Mo ElShenawy, on Developing Autonomous Vehicles](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2021-04-15-ep-22-cruises-sr-vp-of-engineering-mo-elshenawy-on-developing-autonomous-vehicle) (Moore's Lobby)
- [397: Owl](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-12-31-397-owl) (Embedded.fm)
- [From the Ground Up—Zoox Turns a Corner with New AV and Sensor System Designs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2022-10-11-from-the-ground-up-zoox-turns-a-corner-with-new-av-and-sensor-system-designs) (Moore's Lobby)
- [189. Stanford & Toyota Drift Cars With AI](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-next-byte-podcast/2024-08-27-189-stanford-toyota-drift-cars-with-ai) (The Next Byte Podcast)

## Citing this page

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