Waymo's Dmitri Dolgov: 20 Million Rides and the Road to Full Autonomy
Dmitri Dolgov, co-CEO of Waymo, joins Sequoia partner Konstantine Buhler at AI Ascent 2026 to talk about the 20-year arc from the DARPA Grand Challenge to fully autonomous service in eleven cities and counting. He explains how Waymo persisted through every AV hype cycle by treating safety as the non-negotiable foundation, why exponential scaling is finally here (10 of Waymo's 20 million autonomous rides have happened in the last seven months), and how the Waymo Foundation Model — a multimodal world action model that powers the driver, the simulator, and the critic — actually works under the hood. Also: why Waymo is now 13x safer than human drivers, and the moment a Waymo detected a pedestrian behind a city bus by reading the LiDAR returns of their feet.
The System Behind Self-Driving: Waymo’s Dmitri Dolgov
Waymo is now delivering hundreds of thousands of fully autonomous rides each week — but getting there required more than better models. It meant building a complete system for training, evaluating, and deploying a driver in the real world.
In this episode — originally aired on the Cheeky Pint podcast — Waymo Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov joins John Collison to break down how self-driving actually works today: from sensor fusion across LiDAR, radar, and cameras, to simulation, “critic” models, and the role of AI in decision-making.
They also explore why full autonomy is fundamentally different from driver-assist, what it takes to scale globally, and how recent advances in AI are reshaping the path forward.
Resources:
Follow Dmitri Dolgov on X - https://x.com/dmitri_dolgov
Follow John Collison on X - https://x.com/collision
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Waymo’s Journey to Full Autonomy: AI Breakthroughs, Safety, and Scaling
In this episode of No Priors, Dmitri Dolgov, Co-CEO of Waymo, joins Sarah and Elad to explore the evolution and advancements of Waymo's self-driving technology from its inception at Google to its current real-world deployment. Dmitri also shares insights into the technological breakthroughs and complexities of achieving full autonomy, the design innovations of Waymo’s sixth generation driverless cars, and the broader applications of Waymo’s advanced technology. They also discuss Waymo's strategic approach to scaling amidst regulation, deployment in cities like Phoenix and San Francisco, and the transformative potential of autonomous driving on car ownership and urban infrastructure.
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Shownotes:
00:00 Introduction
00:15 History of Self-Driving at Google
00:29 DARPA Challenges and Early Involvement
01:39 Formation of Waymo
01:53 Industry Lineage and Early Skepticism
03:05 Initial Goals and Milestones
4:33 Pivot to Full Autonomy
04:50 Scaling and Deployment
05:29 Generational Breakthroughs
06:59 Choosing Deployment Cities
09:26 Technological Advancements
11:01 Evaluating Safety
14:41 Regulatory Stance and Trust
16:52 Future of Autonomous Driving
23:19 Business Strategy and Partnerships
26:06 Changing Urban Mobility Trends
26:40 Challenges and Misconceptions in Self-Driving Timelines
28:43 The Role of Traditional OEMs in an Autonomous Future
30:54 Designing Cars for Autonomous Ride-Hailing
33:42 Scaling Responsibly
35:18 Generalizability and Future Applications of AI
37:10 The Complexity of Achieving Full Autonomy
42:58 The Importance of Data and Iteration in AI Development
46:13 Reflecting on the Journey and Future of Waymo
Building the World's Most Trusted Driver
Waymo's autonomous vehicles have driven over 20 million miles on public roads and billions more in simulation.
In this episode, a16z General Partner David George sits down with Dmitri Dolgov, CTO at Waymo, to discuss the development of self-driving technology. Dmitri provides technical insights into the evolution of hardware and software, the impact of generative AI, and the safety standards that guide Waymo's innovations.
This footage is from AI Revolution, an event that a16z recently hosted in San Francisco. Watch the full event here: a16z.com/dmitri-dolgov-waymo-ai
Resources:
Find Dmitri on Twitter: https://x.com/dmitri_dolgov
Find David George on Twitter: https://x.com/DavidGeorge83
Learn more about Waymo: https://waymo.com/
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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The future of driving is autonomous with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo
Waymo Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov is convinced that his company’s vehicles are better at driving than any human. Dmitri has spent thousands of hours riding in them, and recently Guy had the chance to try one out as well...
This week on How I Built This Lab, Dmitri recounts the decade-plus journey of building Waymo into the world’s first company to operate a fully-autonomous ride hailing service. Plus, how Waymo’s approach differs from Tesla’s, and Dmitri’s take on when we’ll see more AV’s on the roads than human-driven cars (spoiler: sooner than you may think!)
This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music by Ramtin Arablouei.
It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Chris Maccini. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.
You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.
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#147 – Dmitri Dolgov: Waymo and the Future of Self-Driving Cars
Dmitri Dolgov is the CTO of Waymo, an autonomous vehicle company. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:46) – Computer games
(12:52) – Childhood
(15:24) – Robotics
(16:14) – Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
(18:26) – DARPA Urban Challenge
(28:46) – Waymo origin story
(44:27) – Waymo self-driving hardware
(53:00) – Connected cars
(58:53) – Waymo fully driverless service in Phoenix
(1:03:14) – Getting feedback from riders
(1:11:28) – Creating a product that people love
(1:17:18) – Do self-driving cars need to break the rules like humans do?
(1:24:03) – Waymo Trucks
(1:29:41) – Future of Waymo
(1:42:53) – Role of lidar in autonomous driving
(1:55:53) – Machine learning is essential for autonomous driving
(1:59:55) – Pedestrians
(2:06:32) – Trolley problem
(2:11:00) – Book recommendations
(2:22:26) – Meaning of life
