About this episode
How a secret project at Google led to driverless cars on American roads. Freakonomics Radio shares a story from our friends at Search Engine. (Part one of a two-part series .) SOURCES: Alex Davies , author of Driven: The Race To Create the Autonomous Car . Chris Urmson , co-founder and C.E.O. of Aurora. Don Burnette , founder and C.E.O. of Kodiak AI. PJ Vogt , reporter, writer, and host of the Search Engine podcast. Sebastian Thrun , roboticist, C.E.O. of Sage AI Labs, adjunct faculty at Stanford University. Timothy B. Lee , author of Understanding AI newsletter. RESOURCES: " Very few of Waymo’s most serious crashes were Waymo’s fault ," by Kai Williams (Understand AI, 2025). Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car , by Alex Davies (2021). " An Oral History of the Darpa Grand Challenge, the Grueling Robot Race That Launched the Self-Driving Car ," by Alex Davies (WIRED, 2017). Understanding AI , newsletter on Substack. Waymo Safety Dashboard . EXTRAS: " The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive Nightclub ," by Freakonomics Radio (2024). Search Engine , podcast by PJ Vogt. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.