Waymo raises $2.25 billion - plans for 60% market share of Autonomous vehicles by 2030

Waymo, Google parent company Alphabet’s autonomous vehicles division, has just secured its first round of funding of $2.25 billion from the whose who of funds including 

• Silver Lake, 
• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, 
• Mubadala Investment Company (the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi), 
• Magna International, 
• Andreessen Horowitz, 
• auto retail giant AutoNation, 
• and of course Alphabet itself. 

It’s an initial close on the company’s first round of funding.

CEO of Waymo  John Krafcik (formerly CEO of Hyundai) said that to build a successful business - collaboration is key - and that business is a team sport.  “Waymo is delighted to  bring to the team a bevy of financial investors who will bring decades of experience investing in and supporting successful technology companies building transformative products.”

The Vision  

 “to deploy “the Waymo Driver” around the world making our roads safer, 

The state of play

Today 

• headcount to 1,500 employees or “Waymonauts,” 
• annual cost a around $1 billion, while its robo-taxi business — Waymo One — reportedly yields just hundreds of thousand dollars a year in revenue from its 600 vehicles to date, 
• over 1,500 people are using its ride-hail autonomous taxis with 100,000 total rides since launching its rider programs in 2017.

History 

2009 - Google tests autonomous cars equipped with lidar sensors, radar, cameras, and powerful onboard computers in San Francisco 

2016 - Waymo launches in Phoenix doing a partnership deal with Lyft

2019 - Waymo app launches - look and feel not dissimilar to the UBER and Lyft app.

The Plan 

2020 - short term plan - add up to 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica minivans to its fleet and has signed a deal with Jaguar Land Rover to equip 20,000 of the automaker’s Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs with its system by 2020. (A few of the I-Paces are currently undergoing testing on public roads in San Francisco.)

2025-2030 

According to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025, and Research and Markets anticipates that there will be some 20 million autonomous cars in operation in the U.S. by 2030. 

Waymo plans to dominate the driverless car market in the next decade, with over 60% market share - and the smart money clearly believes the narrative .

The technology 

Later this year, Waymo plans to release its latest autonomous driving system — the fifth-generation Waymo Driver — featuring a new lidar sensor design that’s “breakthrough” in terms of cost-efficiency. The fifth-generation Driver will also boast revamped radars and vision systems, as well as “all-weather” capabilities including defrost and wiper elements and a “significant upgrade” in onboard compute power.

The competitors 

Yandex, Tesla, Zoox, Aptiv, May Mobility, Pronto.ai, Aurora, Nuro, and GM’s Cruise Automation are among Waymo’s self-driving car competitors, to name just a few. 

Daimler last summer obtained a permit from the Chinese government that allows it to test autonomous cars powered by Baidu’s Apollo platform on public roads in China. 

Beijing-based Pony.ai, which has raised hundreds of millions in venture capital, launched a driverless taxi pilot in Irvine in October. 

And startup Optimus Ride built out a small autonomous shuttle fleet in New York City, becoming the first to do so.

China is making a big push to catch up. Since December, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai have all given the green light for autonomous cars to start real-world testing on city roads

The People in the Game 

It’s a small but growing industry - where talent is at a massive premium 

Engineeers, Softwate developers and technicians with experience in this space can name their price!! 

Here is a list of some of the players in the game

• John Krafcik - CEO of Waymo supported by Egon Durban - Co -CEO  of Sver Lake 
• Chris Urmson - CEO Aurora supporyed by  Carle Eschenbach - sequoia representativ
• Sterling Anderson - ex Tesla
• Drew Bagne - ex Uber 
• Anthony Levandowski - set up pronto - ex Uber exec - indicted for stealing Waymo technology
• Randell Iwasaki, executive director of Contra Costa Transportation Authority, which is trying to deploy both U.S. and foreign-made shuttles on public roads.
• Robert Falck - Einride CEO 
• Don Burnette recently secured $40 million for their startup, Kodiak Robotics
• Edwin Olson of the University of Michigan 
• Nidhi Kalra of the RAND Corporation — 
• Huu-Hoi Tran, the head of KPMG’s automotive practice in China.
• Robin Li, Baidu’s chief executive, said autonomous cars would be on Chinese roads within three to five years
• And of course Elon Musk of Tesla

Self-driving trucks

Self driving trucks have always been the holy grail - and Waymo has clearly put its stake in the ground.

Chrysler Pacifica vans have been retrofitted with Waymo’s technology stack and is mapping roads ahead of driverless Peterbilt trucks as part of a project known as Waymo Via. 

Waymo Via — formally announced today — focusses on “all forms of goods delivery.” 

It encompasses both short- and long-haul delivery, from freight transported across interstates down to local delivery. 

They have started mapping  Los Angeles to study congestion and expanding testing to highways in Florida between Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers, and Miami as it conducts self-driving truck pilots in the San Francisco Bay Area, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and on Metro Phoenix freeways (as well as on the I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson). 

In the Metro Pheonix area, the company is piloting autonomous vehicle package transportation between UPS Store locations and a local UPS sorting facility.

The market and value proposition of self driving trucks 

6,700 units globally, totaling $54.23 billion saving the logistics and shipping industry $70 billion annually and boosting productivity by 30%. 

The Pain 

In 2018, the American Trucking Associates recognised a shortage of truck drivers - estimating that 50,000 more truckers were needed to meet demand, even after proposed U.S. Transportation Department screenings for sleep apnea were sidelined.

The Competition 

•  TuSimple raised $12 bbg 0m in September 
•  Pronto.ai - intrigue - CEO being sued for stealing Waymo secrets 
• Aurora, the last of which attracted a $530 million investment at a valuation over $2 billion in February (led by Sequoia )
• Ike, a self-driving truck startup founded by former Apple, Google, Uber Advanced Technologies Group engineers that has raised $52 million, 
•  Einride.  Swedish driverless car company 
• Meanwhile, former Battery Ventures VP Paz Eshel and former Uber and Otto engineer Don Burnette recently secured $40 million for their startup, Kodiak Robotics. 
• Embark — which integrates its driverless systems into semis and launched a pilot with Amazon to haul cargo
• Other autonomous truck solutions from incumbents like Daimler and Volvo.

The technology networks and infrastructure driving the technology

The industry will advance with the advent of 5G -  it will be interesting to see how collaboration takes place between the players  

The Chinese telecoms Huawei is providing its AI infrastructure to a number of high-profile carmakers, including Audi, and China’s state-owned carmakers, GAC Group, Beijing New Energy Automobile, and Changan Automobile.

We may have to change the way we work

Global health emergencies, like Covid-19, are scary, disruptive, and confusing for everyone. could change the way we work! 

“Disruption to everyday life may be severe,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, cautioned at a news conference Tuesday. “Schools could be closed, mass public gatherings suspended, and businesses forced to have employees work remotely.”

Business travel could decrease or come to a full stop. 

You May have to work remotely - with Video conferencing being the main  means of communication

Here is the inevitable post-crisis question: 

“Why don’t we do this all the time?”

Cali Williams Yost, CEO and founder of Flex+Strategy Group/Work+Life Fit shares five steps to reconfigure your workforce 

Acknowledge the possibility that all or part of your workforce may need to work remotely.

Gather a cross-functional team that includes business-line leaders, IT, HR, communications, and facilities to start to plan for different scenarios and optimize execution, should circumstances require a rapid response.

Map out jobs and tasks that could be affected.

Note which roles and duties: 

1) Can be done, even partially, without a physical presence in the workplace, 

2) Cannot be done, even somewhat, outside of the physical office, and 

3) Not sure.

for those in the “not sure” column - experiment 

CFO, CMO , Accountant , Marketing , Salesforce - do they need to be at work? 

Make sure you have strong systems - where everything is documented and your team members can follow what is done for the client .

Audit available IT hardware and software, and close any gaps in access and adoption. 

applications, such as video conferencing and other collaboration/communication platforms need to be state of the art.

Where you find gaps, provide training and opportunities for practice before people need to use them. 

Real-time mastery is not optimal and is inefficient. 

Identify devices owned by the organization that people could use and clarify acceptable “bring your own” phone and laptop options. Determine if there are any data-security issues to consider and how best to address them beforehand.

Set up a communications protocol in advance

This communications plan needs to outline: how to reach everybody (e.g., all contact information in one place, primary communication channels clarified — email, IM, Slack, teams etc.); how employees are expected to respond to customers; and how and when teams will coordinate and meet.  

Identify ways to measure performance that could inform broader change.

Depending upon the outcomes, you may decide to continue certain aspects of the flexible response permanently. 

For example, perhaps you cut business travel by 25% and substitute video conferencing. 

You determine afterward that about 80% of those meetings were equally as effective virtually. 

Therefore, a 20% decrease in business travel will continue, but this time as part of the organization’s sustainability strategy to cut carbon emissions.

And if you plan and nothing happens? Then, at minimum, you have an organized, flexible work disaster response ready the next time there’s a challenge to operational continuity, which chances are, there will be!!

Luvin Life

Food for the soul 

How to prevent #coronavirus

Wash your hands 

A must watch 90s clip 

CDC guidance of evaluating and testing for Coronavirus

Official health update of what to do to Medical officers distributed by CDC - centres of Disease control and prevention 

Recognising the systems

1. fever/ short of breath - and sending them for testing - 
2. Someone who has been in close contact with a positively identified carrier

How to test for SARS-CoV-2. 

• collect and test upper respiratory tract specimens (nasopharyngeal AND oropharyngeal swabs).  
• test lower respiratory tract specimens, if available. 
• For patients who develop a productive cough, sputum should be collected and tested for SARS-CoV-2. The induction of sputum is not recommended. 
• For patients for whom it is clinically indicated (e.g., those receiving invasive mechanical ventilation), a lower respiratory tract aspirate or bronchoalveolar lavage sample should be collected and tested as a lower respiratory tract specimen. 
• Specimens should be collected as soon as possible once a PUI is identified, regardless of the time of symptom onset. 

How to handle specimens 

See Interim Guidelines for Collecting, Handling, and Testing Clinical Specimens from Patients Under Investigation (PUIs) for COVID-19 (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/lab/guidelines-clinical-specimens.html) and Biosafety FAQs for handling and processing specimens from suspected cases and PUIs (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/biosafety-faqs.html).

https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00428.asp

Explanation by World Health Organisation of what Coronavirus is and show it can be spread

Best Marketing Strategy Ever - Apple - think different

Unless  people buy into your values and core values .....which should not change ..... no matter how good your product is - you will be behind those that have clarity!!

Thi is Steve Jobs launch of his core value of “thinking different” 

Deep Learning and the Alpha Node - will you be the next victim of AI

No matter how experienced or qualified you are - your job will be effected by big data and the “AI machine”

Take the example of a recruiter in the IT industry 

Can your decisions and years of experience  be transformed into the "Decision Matrix” or the "alpha node"?

Thr “alpha node”  will make all the decisions and functioning in the organization on your behalf providing the requisite competitive advantage and that too with greater efficiency - based on big data and the deep neural networking learning  that will be calculated through the relevant algorithms of quantum computing. 

So let's find the ideal Post for an organisation 

The alpha node 

• will learn the skills, traits, and the intellectual map for the role.
• pool candidates that come from a certain sample space not leveraging the true pool of candidates. 
• would get access to candidates' digital profile mapping all the critical skills, along with the knowledge required. The bias of Harvard, MIT would end, as the cognitive construction that only those institutes produce top graduates invoking a bias. (Flawed?)
• The "alpha hire" would be bias-free and won't require degree and experience rather skill and that is what required by 2025 to survive for corporations.
• the vision would triumph in alpha hire rather than experience, the critical point is what can you do for an organization and how?? 
• The written or AI-based oral interviews can gauge the candidate's logical understanding, focusing on routine points of what have the candidate had done in the past; 
• post-selection may still be at your disposal? From bonuses to your efficiency - nope -  everything will be in under alpha node

The matrix is powerful and all situational based decision could be carried out by it. 

Maybe the HR data scientists will also be hired  by "alpha node" to keep innovating the model. 

So the competitive advantage of an organisation and simultaneously cost-cutting will make Corporation go for the "alpha node hire"

How can the “alpha node” respect diversity and vision before it's too late?

Is there a place for human gut feel and intuition? 

What do you think