“EVERY car company has a different design language,” says YooJung Ahn, head of design for Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous car division, which aims to turn just about any conventional car into a self-driving one. Ahn’s challenge has been to enable pilot tests for Waymo Driver, its autonomous technology product, on different vehicles as it rolls into cities from Phoenix to San Francisco. Her team had to design a sophisticated hardware add-on that can be deployed on semitrucks and sedans alike—and still look good. That required a pared-down approach. “When you have a simpler design, it’s easier to make it adaptable,” Ahn says. Packed with 40 cameras, radars, and lidars, Waymo Driver sits on top of a car like a three-tiered hat, riding on roof racks that might otherwise hold a cargo…
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Fast Company (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2022