The Simulation Team at Waymo builds state-of-the-art simulations of realistic environments for testing and training the Waymo Driver. Our team is a diverse, and collaborative group of software engineers, machine learning (ML) engineers, and data scientists. We develop industry-leading simulation solutions using advanced ML algorithms that measure and enhance the performance of the Waymo Driver. By applying machine learning, we model the real world, including realistic agents (vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists), roads, traffic control systems, and weather conditions.
A key aspect of our simulation effort is the generation of foundational data that enables realistic simulation and trustworthy evaluations. This involves producing high-fidelity world representations from complex, large-scale multi-modal sensor datasets. Key challenges we tackle include guaranteeing the highest levels of quality and accuracy in these datasets. We are also constantly innovating to build scalable and efficient systems to manage the sheer volume and intricacy of this data.