Anthony Levandowski (hereinafter referred to as "Levandowski"), a pioneer in the autonomous vehicle industry, said that Tesla and Musk currently have an extraordinarily strong position in this field and may even be ahead of Waymo in some key aspects.
Last week, the American company Tesla released its driverless taxi (Cybercab) and driverless van (Robovan). Due to the lack of details, many analysts were disappointed, and Tesla's stock price plummeted 8.78% the next day to the lowest level in nearly a month.
Lewandowski said that while he has some reservations, he remains optimistic about Musk's vision for the future of Tesla and the world. He agreed with Musk's vision-only approach to autonomous driving, rather than using "expensive sensors," and said full autonomy seemed within reach.
In 2009, Lewandowski co-founded Google's self-driving project "Project Chauffeur," which was renamed Waymo in 2016. As a project engineer, Lewandowski is considered a pioneer in the autonomous vehicle industry.
Lewandowski said he is bullish on Tesla overall because of one key factor: data. He explained that Tesla already has cars on the road, some of which are using semi-autonomous features to complete tasks such as parking, lane changes, etc., and that Musk has "the most powerful fleet that can do this."
“Millions of Tesla vehicles are feeding data back to the company to improve the product, and that’s ultimately the real differentiator — you’ll have the richest, most consistent data to improve over time,” he said.
"I would say that in terms of all other driving scenarios, Tesla has probably 10,000 times or even a million times more data than Waymo." Regarding Tesla's press conference last week, Lewand said he hopes Tesla's self-driving technology will have "a little more substance and a little less bragging."
According to Musk, vehicles such as CyberCab will rely on artificial intelligence and cameras instead of hardware common to competitors, such as lidar. He has previously said lidar is a "crutch" that is too expensive and bulky for Tesla's cars.
Lewan agreed, "There's no reason why Waymo can't give up lidar in the future. In fact, I think they will." He also pointed out that Google pays a high fee for each Waymo car, and "you may need to acquire a car company to make the car you want."
After Tesla's press conference, some analysts believed that, at least in the short term, Uber and Lyft would be the frontrunners in self-driving ride-hailing. "Where they (Uber and Lyft) go from here is an interesting question," Lewandowski said.