With Intent

Bonus: Designing for Trust in Urban Systems with Ryan Powell of Waymo

Episode Summary

This bonus episode features Ryan Powell, Head of UX at Waymo and ID graduate, exploring how human-centered design builds trust in autonomous vehicles at individual, community, and city levels.

Episode Notes

In this episode from ID's Shapeshift conference, Ryan Powell shares how Waymo uses design to tackle one of the world's most pressing challenges: the 1.35 million annual traffic fatalities and 50 million injuries from vehicle crashes. 

Key Topics

• The challenge of building trust between passengers and autonomous vehicles in the absence of human drivers
• The evolution from Phoenix's suburban environment to San Francisco's dense urban challenges, requiring "legible motion" and LED signals to communicate with pedestrians and other road users
• Working with cities as stakeholders to integrate autonomous vehicles into existing transportation systems, including first-and-last-mile solutions for public transit
• Growing evidence that autonomous vehicles are making roads safer, particularly for vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists
• The importance of maintaining human-centered design principles when developing AI applications, focusing on human needs rather than technological capabilities

Additional Resources

ID’s Shapeshift Summit: Shaping Our Future with AI

ID Events