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 <a href="https://freakonomics.com/is-this-the-end-of-driving/" rel="noopener noreferrer">two-part series</a>.)
 
<ul>
 <li>SOURCES:
 <ul>
 <li><a href="https://www.alexdavieswriting.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alex Davies</a>, author of Driven: The Race To Create the Autonomous Car.</li>
 <li><a href="https://ir.aurora.tech/company-information/leadership-team" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chris Urmson</a>, co-founder and C.E.O. of Aurora.</li>
 <li><a href="https://investors.kodiak.ai/corporate-governance/management-team" rel="noopener noreferrer">Don Burnette</a>, founder and C.E.O. of Kodiak AI.</li>
 <li><a href="https://www.searchengine.show/" rel="noopener noreferrer">PJ Vogt</a>, reporter, writer, and host of the Search Engine podcast.</li>
 <li><a href="https://robots.stanford.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sebastian Thrun</a>, roboticist, C.E.O. of Sage AI Labs, adjunct faculty at Stanford University.</li>
 <li><a href="https://www.understandingai.org/about" rel="noopener noreferrer">Timothy B. Lee</a>, author of Understanding AI newsletter.</li>
 </ul></li>
</ul>
 
<ul>
 <li>RESOURCES:
 <ul>
 <li>"<a href="https://www.understandingai.org/p/very-few-of-waymos-most-serious-crashes" rel="noopener noreferrer">Very few of Waymo’s most serious crashes were Waymo’s fault</a>," by Kai Williams (Understand AI, 2025).</li>
 <li><a href="https://amzn.to/4bsso7B" rel="noopener noreferrer">Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car</a>, by Alex Davies (2021).</li>
 <li>"<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/darpa-grand-challenge-2004-oral-history/" rel="noopener noreferrer">An Oral History of the Darpa Grand Challenge, the Grueling Robot Race That Launched the Self-Driving Car</a>," by Alex Davies (WIRED, 2017).</li>
 <li><a href="https://www.understandingai.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Understanding AI</a>, newsletter on Substack.</li>
 <li><a href="https://waymo.com/safety/impact/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Waymo Safety Dashboard</a>.</li>
 </ul></li>
</ul>
 
<ul>
 <li>EXTRAS:
 <ul>
 <li>"<a href="https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-fascinatingly-mundane-secrets-of-the-worlds-most-exclusive-nightclub/" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive Nightclub</a>," by Freakonomics Radio (2024).</li>
 <li><a href="https://www.searchengine.show/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Search Engine</a>, podcast by PJ Vogt.</li>
 </ul></li>
</ul> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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