In this week’s episode, Chris talks with Missy Cummings, professor and the director of George Mason University's Autonomy and Robotics Center.

Missy spent eleven years (1988–1999) as a naval officer and military pilot and was one of the United States Navy's first female fighter pilots, flying an F/A-18 Hornet. 

In October 2021, the Biden administration named Cummings as a new senior advisor for safety at the National National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Her appointment to the NHTSA was met with criticism from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk and personal harassment and death threats from Tesla advocates in response to her previous statements critical of Tesla. 

Missy’s  research interests include artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction and the socio-ethical impact of technology. Cummings has written on the brittleness of machine learning and future applications for drones. In addition, she has spoken critically of the safety of Tesla's Full Self-Driving Capability surrounding its reliance on computer vision.