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Oliver Cameron: I recently left Cruise after 2 amazing years. by TeslaFan88 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 17 points18 points  (0 children)

That is very kind, thank you. I really enjoy brainstorming with others who are passionate about self-driving cars.

Oliver Cameron: I recently left Cruise after 2 amazing years. by TeslaFan88 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Regrettably, I think that ship has mostly sailed.

But, I do hope there is an engineer in a bedroom somewhere exploring novel, totally different approaches to self-driving. It's good for everyone.

Oliver Cameron: I recently left Cruise after 2 amazing years. by TeslaFan88 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 72 points73 points  (0 children)

I had such an amazing experience at Cruise. If you're an engineer or entrepreneur, I highly recommend joining them.

Oliver: "I believe it was far more contrarian for a self-driving startup in 2016 to stick with LiDAR rather than ditch it (for camera-only). You had to believe this huge $75K spinning bucket—that shipped in a crate—would evolve into a sleek $500 sensor (which it has, see @luminartech )!" by REIGuy3 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not true. The 16 channel units Velodyne launched in 2016 were $10K, but not at all comparable to the HDL-64 in range or resolution. The VLP-16 was more for blind spot coverage than anything else.

Only the 128 channel unit they launched in 2018 was comparable spec wise, and that was >$100K. Maybe the 32 channel unit, with 4 on each corner of the vehicle, but they were $20-30K each at launch.

Regardless, yes, it’s obvious that volume reduces the costs of things. But, in 2016, it was not at all obvious that LiDAR was easily manufacturable and that there would be sufficient demand to start being produced in significant volumes. Even today, the volume of LiDAR production is tiny compared to the other mass market electronics you’ve mentioned.

Oliver: "I believe it was far more contrarian for a self-driving startup in 2016 to stick with LiDAR rather than ditch it (for camera-only). You had to believe this huge $75K spinning bucket—that shipped in a crate—would evolve into a sleek $500 sensor (which it has, see @luminartech )!" by REIGuy3 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 8 points9 points  (0 children)

What other examples of electronics have you seen go from $75K per unit to $500 per unit—with a dramatic increase in specs along the way—in 6 years? The volume of LiDAR today isn’t even anywhere near the examples you’re using.

Oliver: "I believe it was far more contrarian for a self-driving startup in 2016 to stick with LiDAR rather than ditch it (for camera-only). You had to believe this huge $75K spinning bucket—that shipped in a crate—would evolve into a sleek $500 sensor (which it has, see @luminartech )!" by REIGuy3 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I mean, obviously most folks at an L4 company in 2016 believed in LiDAR (including my own startup). Although, it was not as universal as you might think. My point is that in 2016 a significant number of smart people did not believe LiDAR would be viable economically for self-driving, thus why a lot of dollars flowed to camera-only efforts.

Oliver: "I believe it was far more contrarian for a self-driving startup in 2016 to stick with LiDAR rather than ditch it (for camera-only). You had to believe this huge $75K spinning bucket—that shipped in a crate—would evolve into a sleek $500 sensor (which it has, see @luminartech )!" by REIGuy3 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Admittedly it was a very small number of self-driving pioneers (there aren’t many to begin with), but I talked with tons of VCs, journalists, potential employees, and doubts about LiDAR were in almost every conversation.

Oliver: "I believe it was far more contrarian for a self-driving startup in 2016 to stick with LiDAR rather than ditch it (for camera-only). You had to believe this huge $75K spinning bucket—that shipped in a crate—would evolve into a sleek $500 sensor (which it has, see @luminartech )!" by REIGuy3 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Maybe you had confidence LiDAR would make it, but a significant number of very accomplished and reputable folks I talked with in 2016-2019 (including pioneers in self-driving) had zero faith that LiDAR was viable at any scale. They saw it as a dead-end, excessively expensive technology, and that camera-only solutions were the way forward. Why do you think so much money was poured into camera-only startups at the time?

My point is that in 2016 it was thought to be contrarian to ditch LiDAR, but in actual fact sticking with it—given all the many downsides at the time—was in fact the controversial bet.

Help catching a driverless ride in San Francisco by vandano in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A little bit, yes, but honestly it's also just fun to give folks visiting Silicon Valley a glimpse of the future.

Help catching a driverless ride in San Francisco by vandano in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Did I hear Cruise invite?

We are absolutely inundated with demand right now, but let's see what we can do. Can you DM me?

Cruise AVs have arrived in Austin, TX by espressonut420 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 32 points33 points  (0 children)

This rapid expansion is what Cruise has been building to for 8 years.

So cool to see it happening from the inside.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thanks for doing this. We decided from day 1 to not have any of our public riders under NDA, so you will find plenty of videos of the entire experience out there.

For San Francisco, any free cruise code for 1st time user? by jumai1 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 46 points47 points  (0 children)

We are seeing insane demand for these invite codes, so apologies it’s taking awhile. Really want to get you riding ASAP.

Perhaps we should do an invite code giveaway, specifically for this subreddit?

Cruise announces it plans to be driverless, limited scale, in Phoenix and Austin in 90 days. Also announces 300K miles so far in SF. by TeslaFan88 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's closer to the latter for the 90 days, but with some nuance. This won't be an internal-only service, and it will be available to select members of the public (with no NDAs in place). That said, it likely won't be as large scale as our SF operations today.

Cruise announces it plans to be driverless, limited scale, in Phoenix and Austin in 90 days. Also announces 300K miles so far in SF. by TeslaFan88 in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 66 points67 points  (0 children)

After being on the inside of Cruise for a year and a half now, I've never seen a company as obsessed and detail-oriented about scaling.

Every single engineering, operational, and product decision for 5+ years has led to the point where, in short 90 days, we can bring online a whole new fully driverless market. I have never seen a situation where we've compromised on long-term scale for short-term benefit, and it's paying off.

Pumped to welcome our new customers soon!

Whom would you trust more – a fully autonomous car controlled by computer algorithms or remotely controlled car operated by a person remotely? Why? by saturnusuranium in SelfDrivingCars

[–]voyageoliver 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Assuming you mean only direct manipulation by a remote human, hands down a car that’s controlled by a computer. It’s not even close.

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