Freakonomics Radio

Are Human Drivers Finally Obsolete?

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How a secret project at Google led to driverless cars on American roads. 

Freakonomics Radio shares a story from our friends at Search Engine. (Part one of a two-part series.)

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Alex Davies, author of Driven: The Race To Create the Autonomous Car.
    • Chris Urmson, co-founder and C.E.O. of Aurora.
    • Don Burnette, founder and C.E.O. of Kodiak AI.
    • PJ Vogt, reporter, writer, and host of the Search Engine podcast.
    • Sebastian Thrun, roboticist, C.E.O. of Sage AI Labs, adjunct faculty at Stanford University.
    • Timothy B. Lee, author of Understanding AI newsletter.

      •  

      • RESOURCES:
        • "Very few of Waymo’s most serious crashes were Waymo’s fault," by Kai Williams (Understand AI, 2025).
        • Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car, by Alex Davies (2021).
        • "An Oral History of the Darpa Grand Challenge, the Grueling Robot Race That Launched the Self-Driving Car," by Alex Davies (WIRED, 2017).
        • Understanding AI, newsletter on Substack.
        • Waymo Safety Dashboard.

          •  

          • EXTRAS:
            • "The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive Nightclub," by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
            • Search Engine, podcast by PJ Vogt.

              • Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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