If you’re curious about autonomous vehicles and on-demand services, you won’t want to miss this episode. I’m speak with a former Uber Head of Strategy in the Advanced Technology division, so suffice it to say that today’s guest has plenty of experience in this relatively new industry!
If you’d like to read a transcript of this podcast, please click here.
Intro
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Today I’m talking with Justin Ho, the CEO and Co-Founder of RideOS, a next gen platform marketplace and mapping service
- Will be talking about RideOS and his thoughts on autonomous vehicles
- Don’t forget to check out one of my favorite podcasts, the Smarter Cars podcast!
Intro to Justin Ho
- CEO and Co-Founder of RideOS
- RideOS can be used by ridesharing companies, OEMs and governments to operate fleets of on-demand, self-driving vehicles
- Formerly head of strategy at Uber’s Advanced Technology division where he co-led the ideation strategy and execution of self-driving car and mapping business units
- Favorite mode of transit? Rideshare!
Building Products Isn’t Easy!
- Mapping one of the biggest challenges when Justin joined Uber in 2014
- Still a big challenge – teams of people working to make mapping just right
- Everything is dynamic – always moving and fairly complex
- Moved into the self-driving division for Uber
Self-Driving Car Technology
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Started with a question: what is the fundamental problem of ridesharing?
- What’s the global problem with rideshare?
- Began self-driving vehicle efforts
- Goal is still to make self-driving cars a reality – need good software and good teams
RideOS
- Wants to build tools to become a global leading cloud platform for location dispatch and routing services
- Create safe and efficient transport for all
- Focusing on self-driving cars, it may take a while for society to feel the impact of these technologies
- A lot of factors in this timeline, including manufacturing and technology
Distinct from Competitors
- Built this with flexibility in mind
- Based-routing engine
- Also focusing on efficiency and utilization
- Currently working with Ford, other companies that are focused on self-driving vehicles and infrastructure
Outro
- Big thanks to Justin for coming on the episode! Really cool to meet with folks who are working on different types of products out there
- Interesting thing to me – working at a company like Uber, identifying trends and then starting your own company
