Waymo engineering exec says LiDAR and radar sensors are key to safety in self

Waymo is experimenting with generative AI and other technologies for its self-driving cars, but the company believes the assortment of laser sensors and radars mounted on its cars remains the safest way to run a robotaxi service at scale—at least for now.

“We’ve done a lot of research. We’re aware of what works and what doesn’t work at our scale and what we need to do,” Srikanth Thirumalai, who is vice president of onboard engineering for the current robotaxi industry incumbent, Waymo, said this week at the Ai4 Conference in Las Vegas.

While rivals like Tesla are pushing self-driving cars that rely solely on video cameras, Waymo’s Thirumalai says the combination of LiDAR and radar provides “an additional safety net” to make sure that the company has the adequate data it needs to make d