Kyle Vogt: Cruise Automation | Lex Fridman Podcast #14 | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Kyle Vogt, co-founder of Twitch and Cruise Automation, discusses his passion for robotics and the challenges of bringing autonomous vehicles to the mass market.

Key Insights

• 🤩 Passion for the core technology and surrounding oneself with brilliant and motivated people are key factors in building successful startups.
• 🚙 The transition from prototype to production is a critical milestone in the development of autonomous vehicles.
• 😌 The challenges in autonomous driving lie in surpassing human driving performance and addressing thousands of edge cases.

Transcript

the following is a conversation with convoked he is the president and the CTO of Cruz Automation leading an effort to solve one of the biggest robotics challenges of our time vehicle automation he's a co-founder of two successful companies twitch and crews that have each sold for a billion dollars and he's a great example of the innovative spirit t... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: What inspired you to start working on autonomous vehicles?

I was always fascinated by building things, and my interest in robotics and autonomous vehicles started with Legos and battle bots. It was the potential impact of self-driving cars that drove me to tackle this challenge.

Q: What is Cruise Automation's strategy for success in the autonomous driving market?

Our strategy involves continuous improvement and relentless pursuit of surpassing human driving performance. We aim to tackle the edge cases and polish functionality to ensure our system is as good as or better than human drivers.

Q: How do you plan to address the challenges of autonomous driving, such as dealing with pedestrians and unexpected scenarios?

We rely on a combination of human expertise and machine learning methods to cover a wide range of edge cases. Our goal is to develop a comprehensive system that can handle any scenario by continuously improving its performance through testing and development.

Q: What is the timeline for reaching hundreds of thousands of fully autonomous vehicles on the roads?

While there is no definitive answer, our goal is to achieve this within less than five years. The pace of development depends on how quickly we can expand our operational domains and address the challenges specific to each region.

Q: What inspired you to start working on autonomous vehicles?

I was always fascinated by building things, and my interest in robotics and autonomous vehicles started with Legos and battle bots. It was the potential impact of self-driving cars that drove me to tackle this challenge.

More Insights

• Passion for the core technology and surrounding oneself with brilliant and motivated people are key factors in building successful startups.

• The transition from prototype to production is a critical milestone in the development of autonomous vehicles.

• The challenges in autonomous driving lie in surpassing human driving performance and addressing thousands of edge cases.

• The future of autonomous vehicles holds tremendous potential for improving road safety, reducing traffic congestion, and transforming transportation as we know it.

Summary

In this conversation, Kyle Vogt, the president and CTO of Cruise Automation, discusses his background in robotics and his journey in the world of entrepreneurship. Vogt shares his experiences in building companies like Twitch and Cruise, and explains his motivation for working on self-driving cars. He also talks about the challenges of merging the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley with the mass production and safety culture of a major automaker like General Motors.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Vogt get interested in robotics?

Vogt has always enjoyed building things, starting from Legos and progressing to Lego Mindstorms, which allowed him to program his creations. He was inspired by watching the BattleBots TV show and wanted to be a part of it, which led him to obsessively study and learn how to build fighting robots.

Q: What drew Vogt to robotics in the first place?

Vogt was initially attracted to the mechanical engineering aspect of robotics, such as building machines with weapons. However, he later became more interested in the challenges of autonomous robots and the engineering involved in pushing components to their limits.

Q: What was Vogt's first experience with coding?

Vogt's first experience with coding was in elementary school, where he played games on Apple 2 computers. Occasionally, the computers would crash, and he was fascinated by the command prompt that appeared. In fifth grade, he had the opportunity to learn programming on these computers, starting with the BASIC language.

Q: Did Vogt always know he wanted to start a company?

Yes, Vogt always had a desire to start a company. He found the concept of creating something and exchanging it for value or creating value to be intriguing. In high school, he tried to start small ventures like building servo motor drivers, and he knew that at some point in his life, he wanted to pursue a startup.

Q: How did Vogt end up leaving MIT to start his first company, justin.tv?

While still an undergraduate at MIT, Vogt teamed up with two guys from Yale who had previously founded a company. He believed he could learn a lot from them and saw the opportunity to create something interesting. He took a one-way ticket to California during his IAP (Independent Activities Period) and never returned.

Q: Can Vogt describe the experience of the night when justin.tv had technical issues?

On the night before the official launch of justin.tv as a live video streaming platform, the site stopped working properly. Vogt and another team member stayed up through the night trying to solve the technical issues. Despite the stress, Vogt looks back on it as a character-defining moment.

Q: How did Vogt and his team transition from justin.tv to eventually founding Cruise Automation?

After the success of justin.tv and Twitch, Vogt wanted to work on something that had a direct and positive impact on society. He had always been interested in self-driving cars since his college days, and he saw the possibility of making a significant impact through this technology. Vogt made a list of requirements for a new venture and determined that self-driving cars met all of them. From there, he went all in on Cruise Automation.

Q: How did Vogt approach solving the problem of autonomous driving?

Initially, Vogt's plan was to tackle the problem of automating highway driving through retrofitting. The idea was to retrofit existing cars with Cruise's autonomous driving technology, starting with a simple problem and gradually moving towards fully autonomous cars. However, they soon realized the challenges and complexities of retrofitting and decided to focus solely on developing fully autonomous vehicles.

Q: What challenges did Vogt face when merging the cultures of Silicon Valley and General Motors (GM)?

Vogt acknowledges the differences in culture between Silicon Valley and GM. At GM, there is a strong focus on following processes, meeting deadlines, and staying within budget, while Silicon Valley tends to value continuous improvement and experimentation. Merging these cultures required a significant learning curve for both GM and Cruise, but they have successfully worked together to bridge the gaps and share common values.

Q: How does Vogt view the future of autonomous driving and its impact on society?

Vogt believes that autonomous driving has the potential to transform transportation and society as a whole. He sees ride-sharing as a significant opportunity for financial viability in the near term, as there is a clear demand for such services. Additionally, the economics of self-driving fleets, such as vehicle cost, lifetime, and revenue generation, will play key roles in making autonomous driving financially sustainable.

Takeaways

The conversation with Kyle Vogt provides insights into his journey as an entrepreneur, from his early interests in robotics to his experiences in building successful companies like justin.tv and Cruise Automation. Vogt's passion for self-driving cars and his belief in their potential impact on society is evident throughout the conversation. The challenges of merging the cultures of Silicon Valley and GM are also highlighted, showing the efforts made to bridge the gap and work towards a common goal. Overall, this conversation sheds light on the future of autonomous driving and the opportunities it presents for both financial success and societal transformation.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Kyle Vogt's love for building things started with Legos and battle bots, leading him to develop a passion for robotics and autonomous vehicles.

• Starting with the DARPA Grand Challenge, Vogt realized the potential of self-driving cars and decided to tackle the challenge of bringing them to the market.

• Cruise Automation's initial plan to retrofit existing vehicles with self-driving capabilities shifted to fully autonomous vehicles, driven by the desire to create a truly impactful and scalable product.

• The biggest challenges in autonomous driving involve continuous improvement and surpassing human driving performance, where success lies in addressing thousands of edge cases.