The Waymo World Model: A New Frontier for Autonomous Driving Simulation

https://waymo.com/blog/2026/02/the-waymo-world-model-a-new-frontier-for-autonomous-driving-simulation

202•xnx•1h ago

Comments

xnx•1h ago

> The Waymo World Model can convert those kinds of videos, or any taken with a regular camera, into a multimodal simulation—showing how the Waymo Driver would see that exact scene.

Subtle brag that Waymo could drive in camera-only mode if they chose to. They've stated as much previously, but that doesn't seem widely known.

bonsai_spool•1h ago

I think I'm misunderstanding - they're converting video into their representation which was bootstrapped with LIDAR, video and other sensors. I feel you're alluding to Tesla, but Tesla could never have this outcome since they never had a LIDAR phase.

(edit - I'm referring to deployed Tesla vehicles, I don't know what their research fleet comprises, but other commenters explain that this fleet does collect LIDAR)

yakz•1h ago

Tesla does collect LIDAR data (people have seen them doing it, it's just not on all of the cars) and they do generate depth maps from sensor data, but from the examples I've seen it is much lower resolution than these Waymo examples.

justapassenger•1h ago

Tesla does it to map the areas to come up with high def maps for areas where their cars try to operate.

vardump•1h ago

Tesla uses lidar to train their models to generate depth data out of camera input. I don’t think they have any high definition maps.

smallmancontrov•1h ago

They can and they do.

https://youtu.be/LFh9GAzHg1c?t=872

They've also built it into a full neural simulator.

https://youtu.be/LFh9GAzHg1c?t=1063

I think what we are seeing is that they both converged on the correct approach, one of them decided to talk about it, and it triggered disclosure all around since nobody wants to be seen as lagging.

tfehring•18m ago

I watched that video around both timestamps and didn't see or hear any mention of LIDAR, only of video.

uejfiweun•1h ago

I've always wondered... if Lidar + Cameras is always making the right decision, you should theoretically be able to take the output of the Lidar + Cameras model and use it as training data for a Camera only model.

olex•1h ago

That's exactly what Tesla is doing with their validation vehicles, the ones with Lidar towers on top. They establish the "ground truth" from Lidar and use that to train and/or test the vision model. Presumably more "test", since they've most often been seen in Robotaxi service expansion areas shortly before fleet deployment.

bob_theslob646•1h ago

Is that exactly true though? Can you give a reference for that?

olex•1h ago

I don't have a specific source, no. I think it was mentioned in one of their presentation a few years back, that they use various techniques for "ground truth" for vision training, among those was time series (depth change over time should be continuous etc) and iirc also "external" sources for depth data, like LiDAR. And their validation cars equipped with LiDAR towers are definitely being seen everywhere they are rolling out their Robotaxi services.

__alexs•1h ago

> you should theoretically be able to take the output of the Lidar + Cameras model and use it as training data for a Camera only model.

Why should you be able to do that exactly? Human vision is frequently tricked by it's lack of depth data.

scarmig•1h ago

"Exactly" is impossible: there are multiple Lidar samples that would map to the same camera sample. But what training would do is build a model that could infer the most likely Lidar representation from a camera representation. There would still be cases where the most likely Lidar for a camera input isn't a useful/good representation of reality, e.g. a scene with very high dynamic range.

etrautmann•46m ago

Sure, but those models would never have online access to information only provided in lidar data…

shihab•1h ago

I think there are two steps here: converting video to sensor data input, using sensor data to drive. Only the second step will be handled by cars on road, first one is purely for training.

ActorNightly•1h ago

The purpose of lidar is to prove error correction when you need it most in terms of camera accuracy loss.

Humans do this, just in the sense of depth perception with both eyes.

dbt00•1h ago

(Always worth noting, human depth perception is not just based on stereoscopic vision, but also with focal distance, which is why so many people get simulator sickness from stereoscopic 3d VR)

mikepurvis•7m ago

My understanding is that contextual clues are a big part of it too. We see a the pitcher wind up and throw a baseball as us more than we stereoscopically track its progress from the mound to the plate.

More subtly, a lot of depth information comes from how big we expect things to be, since everyday life is full of frames of reference. This is why the forced perspective of theme park castles is so effective— our brains want to see those upper windows as full sized, so we see the thing as 2-3x bigger than it actually is. And in the other direction, a lot of things in Las Vegas are further away than they look because buildings like the Bellagio have black boxes on them that group a 2x2 block of the actual hotel room windows.

SecretDreams•1h ago

> Humans do this, just in the sense of depth perception with both eyes.

Humans do this with vibes and instincts, not just depth perception. When I can't see the lines on the road because there's too much slow, I can still interpret where they would be based on my familiarity with the roads and my implicit knowledge of how roads work, e.g. We do similar things for heavy rain or fog, although, sometimes those situations truly necessitate pulling over or slowing down and turning on your 4s - lidar might genuinely given an advantage there.

pookeh•57m ago

That’s the purpose of the neural networks

array_key_first•4m ago

Yes and no - vibes and instincts isn't just thought, it's real senses. Humans have a lot of senses; dozens of them. Including balance, pain, sense of passage of time, and body orientation. Not all of these senses are represented in autonomous vehicles, and it's not really clear how the brain mashes together all these senses to make decisions.

pants2•57m ago

Another way humans perceive depth is by moving our heads and perceiving parallax.

menaerus•55m ago

How expensive is their lidar system?

eptcyka•52m ago

Less than the lives it saves.

hangonhn•43m ago

Hesai has driven the cost into the $200 to 400 range now. That said I don't know what they cost for the ones needed for driving. Either way we've gone from thousands or tens of thousands into the hundreds dollar range now.

bragr•10m ago

Looking at prices, I think you are wrong and automotive Lidar is still in the 4 to 5 figure range. HESAI might ship Lidar units that cheap, but automotive grade still seems quite expensive: https://www.cratustech.com/shop/lidar/

xnx•43m ago

Cheaper every year.

jmux•18m ago

Waymo does their LiDAR in-house, so unfortunately we don’t know the specs or the cost

mycall•51m ago

That is still important for safety reasons in case someone uses a LiDAR jamming system to try to force you into an accident.

Jyaif•48m ago

If somebody wants to hurt you while you are traveling in a car, there are simpler ways.

etrautmann•47m ago

It’s way easier to “jam” a camera with bright light than a lidar, which uses both narrow band optical filters and pulsed signals with filters to detect that temporal sequence. If I were an adversary, going after cameras is way way easier.

OGEnthusiast•1h ago

What's going to happen to all the millions of drivers who will lose their job overnight? In a country with 100 million guns, are we really sure we've thought this through?

0x457•1h ago

Yes, let's stop all progress and roll-back all automation to keep hypothetical angry people with guns happy.

Phenomenit•1h ago

Seems like a good description on current events.

runarberg•54m ago

Autonomous private cars is not the technological progress you think it is. We’ve had autonomous trains for decades, and while it provides us with a more efficient and cost effective public transit system, it didn’t open the doors for the next revolutionary technology.

Self driving cars is a dead end technology, that will introduce a whole host of new problems which are already solved with public transit, better urban planning, etc.

pnut•36m ago

Nope. Humans are statistically fallible and their attention is too valuable to be obliged to a mundane task like executing navigation commands. Redesigning and rebuilding city transportation infrastructure isn't happening, look around. Also personal agency limits public transportation as a solution.

runarberg•16m ago

Unlike autonomous driving, public transit is a proven solution employed in thousands of cities around the world, on various scales, economies, etc.

> Redesigning and rebuilding city transportation infrastructure isn't happening, look around.

We have been redesigning and rebuilding city transportation infrastructure since we had cities. Where I live (Seattle) they are opening a new light rail bridge crossing just next month (first rail over a floting bridge; which is technologically very interesting), and two new rail lines are being planned. In the 1960s the Bay area completely revolutionized their transit sytem when they opened BART.

I think you are simply wrong here.

sekai•34m ago

> We’ve had autonomous trains for decades

Trains need tracks, cars - already have the infrastructure to drive on.

> Self driving cars is a dead end technology, that will introduce a whole host of new problems which are already solved with public transit, better urban planning, etc.

Self driving cars will literally become a part of public transit

runarberg•21m ago

> Self driving cars will literally become a part of public transit

I’ve been hearing people say that for almost 15 years now. I believe it when I see it.

skybrian•1h ago

If Waymo's history is any guide, it's not going to happen overnight. Even in San Francisco, their market share is only 20-30%.

gadflyinyoureye•1h ago

Those are rookie numbers. The US has 400 million guns. https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/united-states-gun-owners...

As to the revolt, America doesn't do that any more. Years of education have removed both the vim and vigor of our souls. People will complain. They will do a TikTok dance as protest. Some will go into the streets. No meaningful uprising will occur.

The poor and the affected will be told to go to the trades. That's the new learn to program. Our tech overlords will have their media tell us that everything is ok (packaging it appropriately for the specific side of the aisle).

Ultimately the US will go down hill to become a Belgium. Not terrible, but not a world dominating, hand cutting entity it once was.

markvdb•1h ago

> Ultimately the US will go down hill to become a Belgium.

Sharing one's opinion in a respectful way is possible. Less spectacle, so less eyeballs, but worth it. Try it.

nubg•1h ago

What's wrong with his comparison? He explained what he meant by "a Belgium".

bonsai_spool•1h ago

> Ultimately the US will go down hill to become a Belgium.

I'm curious why you say this given you start by highlighting several characteristics that are not like Belgium (to wit, poor education, political media capture, effective oligarchy). I feel there are several other nations that may be better comparators, just want to understand your selection.

paxys•1h ago

Waymo has been operating since 2004 (22 years ago), and replacing drivers on the road will take many more decades. Nothing is happening "overnight".

the_sleaze_•1h ago

Inflection points matter.

lanthissa•1h ago

same thing that happened during the industrial revolution, you pay enough of them to 'protect the law' vs the rest.

sigspec•1h ago

UBI or war, or both

VirusNewbie•1h ago

I don't think Uber goes out of business. There is probably a sweet spot for Waymo's steady state cars, and you STILL might want 'surge' capabilities for part time workers who can repurpose their cars to make a little extra money here and there.

sekai•38m ago

> What's going to happen to all the millions of drivers who will lose their job overnight? In a country with 100 million guns, are we really sure we've thought this through?

Same was said about electricity, or the internet.

add-sub-mul-div•1h ago

"Autonomous"

https://cybernews.com/news/waymo-overseas-human-agents-robot...

Rebelgecko•1h ago

My understanding is that support is basically playing an RTS (point and click), not a 1P driving game. Which makes sense, if they were directly controlling the vehicles they'd put support in central America for better latency, like the food delivery bot drivers

jonas21•1h ago

Yeah. Waymo wrote an article on how this works a couple of years ago:

https://waymo.com/blog/2024/05/fleet-response/

turtlesdown11•41m ago

Right, I totally believe Waymo, just like I totally believed Amazon's checkout-less stores.

TulliusCicero•58m ago

This isn't news, they've always acknowledged that they have remote navigators that tell the cars what to do when they get stuck or confused. It's just that they don't directly drive the car.

mgaunard•1h ago

Still needs to be trained on the final boss: dense cities with narrow streets.

xnx•1h ago

What would be an example city? Waymo just announced they're ramping up in Boston: https://waymo.com/blog/?modal=short-back-to-boston

"we’re excited to continue effectively adapting to Boston’s cobblestones, narrow alleyways, roundabouts and turnpikes."

ginko•55m ago

Not grandparent but I was rather thinking of medieval city centers in Italy or Spain.

edit: Case in point:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xxYQWHrzSMES8HPL8

This is an alley in Coimbra, Portugal. A couple years ago I stayed at a hotel in this very street and took a cab from the train station. The driver could have stopped in the praça below and told me to walk 15m up. Instead the guy went all the way up then curved through 5-10 alleys like that to drop me off right right in front of my place. At a significant speed as well. It was one of the craziest car rides I've ever experienced.

pants2•54m ago

Any small city in Italy is going to be 10X more challenging than Boston

threetonesun•35m ago

Depends, which is harder: a narrow street or a three lane one with no obvious lane markers with people double parking?

micromacrofoot•6m ago

and the failure mode for some of them are steep drops off of cliffs

zhengyi13•54m ago

Various European cities come to mind: Narrow streets are something of a trope in certain movies/genres.

jkaptur•43m ago

To be fair, many of those films do not portray human drivers in the best light.

reluctant_dev•1h ago

San Francisco isn't uniformly dense and narrow, but it does have both, and it's run remarkably well so far.

breckinloggins•54m ago

I live in such an area. The route to my house involves steep topography via small windy streets that are very narrow and effectively one-way due to parked cars.

Human drivers routinely do worse than Waymo, which I take 2 or 3 times a week. Is it perfect? No. Does it handle the situation better than most Lyft or Uber drivers? Yes.

As a bonus: unlike some of those drivers the Waymo doesn't get palpably angry at me for driving the route.

dandaka•51m ago

Yes, something like Ho Chi Minh or Mumbai in a peak hour! With lots of bike riders, pedestrians, and livestock at the same roundabout.

seydor•42m ago

Napoli

pja•31m ago

Waymo cars are driving around London right now.

Not taking paying passengers yet though!

throwaway_20357•7m ago

Like London? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvctCbVEvwQ

renewiltord•2m ago

Does it, though? Maybe Dhaka will never get Waymo. The same way you can’t get advanced gene therapy there.

NullHypothesist•1h ago

I wonder if they can simulate the Beatles crossing the street at Abbey Road in the late '60s

seanhunter•1h ago

As a Londoner who used to have to ride up Abbey Road at least once per week there are people on that crossing pretty much all day every day reproducing that picture. So now Waymo are in Beta in London[1] they have only to drive up there and they'll get plenty of footage they could use for taht.

[1] I've seen a couple of them but they're not available to hire yet and are still very rare.

devmor•1h ago

Wow, interesting timing for this PR blast considering the admission in the Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Not transparent at all!

WarmWash•44m ago

What was the admission? That they use cheap labor to provide the waymo clarity when it is confused? That has been known for a long time.

ra7•1h ago

The novel aspect here seems to be 3D LiDAR output from 2D video using post-training. As far as I'm aware, no other video world models can do this.

IMO, access to DeepMind and Google infra is a hugely understated advantage Waymo has that no other competitor can replicate.

PeterStuer•1h ago

Imagine driving in a Waymo 'out of a raging fire'.

Talk about edge cases.

But, what would you do? Trust the Waymo, or get out (or never get in) at the first sign of trouble?

breckinloggins•51m ago

Interesting question. If the Waymo was driving aggressively to remove us from the situation but relatively safely I might stay in it.

This does bring up something, though: Waymo has a "pull over" feature, but it's hidden behind a couple of touch screen actions involving small virtual buttons and it does not pull over immediately. Instead, it "finds a spot to pull over". I would very much like a big red STOP IMMEDIATELY button in these vehicles.

tensor•34m ago

Can you not just unlock and open the door? Wouldn't that cause it to immediately stop? Or can you not unlock the door manually? I'd be surprised if there was not an emergency door release.

bragr•26m ago

>it's hidden behind a couple of touch screen actions involving small virtual buttons and it does not pull over immediately

It was on the home screen when I've taken it, and when I tested it, it seemed to pull to the first safe place. I don't trust the general pubic with a stop button.

jimt1234•1h ago

This might be relevant to the timing here: https://eletric-vehicles.com/waymo/waymo-exec-admits-remote-...

m0llusk•58m ago

Seems interesting, but why is it broken. Waymo repeatedly directed multiple automated vehicles into the private alley off of 5th near Brannan in SF even after being told none of them have any business there ever, period. If they can sense the weather and stuff then maybe they could put out a virtual sign or fence that notes what appears to be a road is neither a through way nor open to the public? I'm really bullish on automated driving long term, but now that vehicles are present for real we need to start to think about potentially getting serious about finding some way to get them to comply with the same laws that limit what people can do.

turtlesdown11•43m ago

How many Filipinos, who do not have US drivers licenses, does it take to drive this new model?

mellosouls•34m ago

Deepmind's Project Genie under the hood (pun intended). Deepmind & Waymo both Alphabet(Google) subsidiaries obv.

https://deepmind.google/blog/genie-3-a-new-frontier-for-worl...

Discussed here,eg.

Genie 3: A new frontier for world models (1510 points, 497 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44798166

Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds (673 points, 371 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46812933

paxys•7m ago

Regardless of the corporate structure DeepMind is a lot more than just another Alphabet subsidiary at this point considering Demis Hassabis is leading all of Google AI.

Kapura•34m ago

Interesting that this should come out right as lawmakers are beginning to understand that Waymos have overseas operators making major decisions.

[*] https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/waymos-controlled-wo...

thethimble•32m ago

Why is this relevant at all?

Having humans in the loop at some level is necessary for handling rare edge cases safely.

mrcwinn•29m ago

If that’s true the system isn’t finished. That’s what reasoning is for.

FL33TW00D•22m ago

Completely false: https://x.com/i/status/2019213765506670738

Listen to the statement.

The operators help when the Waymo is in a "difficult situation".

Car drives itself 99% of the time, long tail of issues not yet fixed have a human intervene.

Everyone is making out like it's an RC car, completely false.

ChadNauseam•8m ago

Whenever something like this comes out, it's a good moment to find people with no critical thinking skills who can safely be ignored. Driving a waymo like an RC car from the philippines? you can barely talk over zoom with someone in the philippines without bitrate and lag issues.

mempko•29m ago

One interesting thing from this paper is how big of a LiDaR shadow there is around the waymo car which suggests they rely on cameras for anything close (maybe they have radar too?). Seems LiDaR is only useful for distant objects.

999900000999•14m ago

It doesn't look like they're going to open sources or anything, but I could imagine this would be great for city planning.

Or the most realistic game of SimCity you could imagine.

mattlondon•9m ago

Suddenly all this focus on world models by Deep mind starts to make sense. I've never really thought of Waymo as a robot in the same way as e.g. a Boston Dynamics humanoid, but of course it is a robot of sorts.

Google/Alphabet are so vertically integrated for AI when you think about it. Compare what they're doing - their own power generation , their own silicon, their own data centers, search Gmail YouTube Gemini, billions and billions of Android users, their ads everywhere , their browser everywhere, waymo, probably buy back Boston dynamics soon enough.... and then look at ChatGPT's chatbot or groks porn. Pales in comparison.

smeeth•6m ago

I always understood this to be why Tesla started working on humanoid robots

Vosporos•5m ago

The new frontier is manifestly the Phillipines.

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