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Decoder with Nilay Patel

Meet Austin Russell, the 25-year-old billionaire building the future of self-driving cars

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business, Technology

4.23.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Austin Russell, Luminar’s founder and CEO on why he thinks LIDAR is the future of self-driving technology, where he thinks the autonomous vehicle industry is headed, and proving Elon Musk wrong. Let us know what you think: http://theverge.com/survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Before we start the episode, I want to ask you to take some time to fill out the decoder

0:03.1

audience survey. We want to hear what you think of the show, our guests, and any other feedback

0:07.4

you want to share. It'll only take a few minutes and you'll be helping to inform future episodes

0:12.1

to make our show even better. You can find the survey in the show notes or at theverge.com slash

0:17.7

survey. Thanks. This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your

0:24.9

people and tools together in one place. It's your digital HQ where you can increase productivity,

0:30.4

enable flexibility, and automate workflows. Plus, Slack is full of game changing features,

0:36.1

like huddles for quick check-ins or Slack Connect, which helps you connect with partners inside

0:41.0

and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at slack.com slash

0:47.6

DHQ New Year, new me. Nah, I'm fine just the way I am. Doing the things I love, like enjoying

0:56.8

a latte on the bus with some music or on a walk with a friend. My only resolution is to enjoy

1:04.6

more of what I love, like switching up my usual with oat, soy, almond, or coconut. All delicious

1:11.8

non-dairy alternatives available at Starbucks. For no extra charge, well stocks last subject to

1:18.1

availability. Hello and welcome to decoder. I'm Neil Ipatel, editor in chief of the verge,

1:24.2

and decoder is my new podcast of big ideas and other problems. This is our second week in a row

1:30.5

with a very impressive 20-something CEO on decoder, which is a trend that I love, even though it's

1:36.6

making me feel very old. Today I'm talking to Austin Russell, the 25-year-old founder and CEO of

1:42.8

Luminar, a startup in Silicon Valley that makes LiDAR sensors for self-driving cars. Luminar

1:48.6

recently, when public making Austin today's youngest self-made billionaire. And when it comes to

1:53.8

self-driving cars, youth is definitely an advantage. Austin told me we're still years if not decades

1:59.6

away from fully self-driving cars with no steering wheel. And there's still a lot of work to be done

2:05.6

to make them safe, effective, and ubiquitous. That work is racing ahead. Luminar has deals with

...

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