Shaun Stewart, CEO of New Lab, and former CBO of Waymo, recently joined CARMERA as an advisor and investor. Shaun brings years of experience in the AV space to CARMERA, and will help guide our company’s continued growth as we secure strategic partnerships in the years ahead. Here is Shaun Stewart, in his own words, on his decision to join CARMERA, and his vision for the future of the AV space.

Field of View: Over the course of your career, you’ve worked with some tech heavyweights in Silicon Valley (Waymo, Airbnb) and earlier stage startups like Jetsetter and now as the head of New Lab. Can you tell us a bit about your career path, and what led you to taking on this role at CARMERA?

Shaun Stewart: The early years of my career (from 2002–2016) were focused on the transition of travel transactions from the offline agency world to the online merchant model. This started with eight years at Expedia but then grew to time at Jetsetter, TripAdvisor and Airbnb more recently. The experience at Airbnb exposed me to the Silicon Valley approach to operating and scaling new ventures which allowed me to make an important move from the travel space to working with frontier technologies after moving to Google X to join Project Chauffeur, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle team midway through 2016. After three years at Google X, and later Waymo after the spinout I was ready to bring that wealth of west coast experience back to New York and back to the early stages of venture development that I have always loved.

FOV: What are the biggest challenges facing the autonomous driving industry right now, and how do you think CARMERA can address those challenges?

SS: Although companies like Waymo have been developing this technology for over a decade the overall autonomous vehicle space is still in its infancy with a challenging yet exciting road ahead. By looking at early deployments of AVs you can see some of the major obstacles or challenges that remain key to overcome to reach the scale and impact we all anticipate.

Weather: The technology has yet to reach the same level of performance in all weather conditions leading to a heavy concentration of testing and deployment in low rain level cities like Phoenix.

The technology has yet to reach the same level of performance in all weather conditions leading to a heavy concentration of testing and deployment in low rain level cities like Phoenix. Cost of Hardware: The hardware at the current scale remains costly leading to commercial deployments in areas where vehicles can operate revenue 24 hours a day as a service vs. a personal car ownership product.

The hardware at the current scale remains costly leading to commercial deployments in areas where vehicles can operate revenue 24 hours a day as a service vs. a personal car ownership product. Mapping: The ability to develop and maintain HD mapping coverage of large land masses remain challenging, leading to deployment in smaller fixed territories vs. the L5 vision of a vehicle capable of moving coast to coast freely.

The ability to develop and maintain HD mapping coverage of large land masses remain challenging, leading to deployment in smaller fixed territories vs. the L5 vision of a vehicle capable of moving coast to coast freely. Urban Density: Lastly the sophistication and ability to comfortably maneuver through dense urban environments remains a challenge, pushing earlier deployments to more suburban environments vs. CBDs.

CARMERA’s technology obviously offers a direct solution to the mapping challenge, of developing and maintaining maps at scale that helps the vehicles understand key factors of location, perception and planning. In addition the detail and insights their mapping product provides allow the cars to continue to improve their performance in challenging weather and dense urban environments. Although they won’t play a role in lowering hardware costs, they do directly tackle the three other observed areas of improvement and can allow an AV developer to focus on the hardware and software needed to succeed vs. spending time on the base map product.

FOV: What’s the most important thing you want people to know about CARMERA and HD mapping?

SS: There are many important elements to the mapping solution they provide but to me the most interesting element based on my experience running Operations for an AV developer is how the maps update in real time based on changes detected in the urban environment. Keeping mapping data accurate despite ever changing road conditions is incredibly challenging, their approach of utilizing extended fleets of vehicles allows for the speed and accuracy of the maps to be improved substantially.

FOV: Who’s getting it right in the AV tech space right now?

SS: With 130+ people dying every hour on the roads globally I feel all the AV focused companies are getting it right — there must be a better way and I for one am pleased my 1 year old won’t have to drive a car. In regards to leadership position and approach from one company to the next, my money will always be on Waymo.

FOV: In your view, what’s the roadmap (pun intended) for CARMERA in the years ahead?

SS: Over the course of my career I’ve seen firsthand why reliable HD mapping technology is critical to successful AV deployments. The truth is, HD mapping is one of the hardest things for many companies to get right on their own. CARMERA helps democratize access to this important technology by providing a best-in-class, vendor-agnostic solution. In the years ahead, I predict that CARMERA will make huge strides toward the goal of mapping every roadway in the world, and will help create the infrastructure that will make autonomous driving a reality for everyone.