Timestamps:

0:51 - Welcome to today’s episode with guest Hussein Mehanna

2:26 - Hussein’s magic moment

5:24 - Motivation to buy a self-driving car

6:03 - Hussein's most controversial opinion about AI

8:25 - Biggest challenge the industry is facing now

10:38 - An autonomous enterprise is the goal

16:20 - The difference between AI-native and traditional products

16:53 - The future of autonomous vehicles

19:00 - The best piece of advice Hussein has received

21:10 - Rapid-fire questions

Episode Summary:

Today we are joined by Hussein Mehanna, head of AI and ML at Cruise. He’s helping build the future of transportation with the world’s first self-driving car. Hussein has spent his career building awesome software products at companies like Google, Snap Inc., Facebook, and Microsoft. His success has led him to be a part of the San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40 list. In this episode, we discuss the magic moments in his career, what it means to be an AI-native company, the future of autonomous vehicles, and much more!

To kick off the conversation, Hussein shares his “magic moment” in 2021 when he had his first driverless car ride in San Francisco. Hussein shares that at first, you’re a little intimidated since there is no driver in the car, but after the first few minutes, he said he relaxed and the vehicle drove smoothly and confidently. After the first five minutes or so, Hussein was even bored! He describes how boredom is magical and he feels these self-driving cars will have the power to change the way we live. Instead of driving, people will be able to meditate or sleep during the ride. Commuting will no longer be downtime, but productive time. He believes we will end up being liberated and feel more refreshed and relaxed since people will have the freedom to spend their commute time as they choose. In addition to productive time, Hussein says all of these cars will be electric, so they will be safer for the environment. He then explains the difference between self-driving cars and public transportation in that you have your own space in the self-driving car and therefore, you feel more comfortable and relaxed during the ride. You also have flexibility – you don’t need to leave or catch the bus by a certain time, but you can leave at whatever time works best for you.

Next, Hussein shares his most controversial opinion of AI. His opinion is that the industry will face the most disruption in robotics. He states that traditionally, roboticists have not used machinery. Many times, the robots get stuck or stumble. Machine learning will help robotics deliver on its potential. In machinery, you need to be rigorous with how you evaluate products, and being meticulous will help to understand all the errors that self-driving cars will make. Most of robotics is confined to the mechanics world, like building robots, but now the next revolution is building software.

Hussein then describes that the biggest challenge his industry is facing now is more geographies. In those geographies, there will be various weather conditions like sandstorms, fog, or rain. He says building a custom solution for each and every geography will take too much manpower and money. He says instead, we need to move from building machine learning models where a lot of human beings are involved into machine learning models that learn autonomously. The car should be able to evolve itself instead of using a lot of human effort to adapt it.

To continue the conversation, they discuss this idea of what autonomous behavior really means. Hussein then states the four stages of autonomous behavior. The first stage is collecting the data. The second stage is extracting insights by examining the data. The third stage is learning from these insights and the last stage is to test and deploy these insights. Then, you can keep continuing the loop. Hussein states that the main question you need to ask is “How much human involvement is in each stage?” We want to do as much of this loop autonomously without so much manpower. Figuring out what the problem is while developing robots is hard to do without human beings. The goal is to create a continuous learning machine that will automate your work, so we can build a robot that can learn from various conditions and improve its own performance.

In the future, Hussein believes that self-driving vehicles will be the new normal, and people will stop buying their own personal cars. Since the cars will drive themselves, he believes there will be fewer accidents on the road. Hussein also believes it will be liberating in that there will be more freedom in where to live. People will also be more refreshed and rejuvenated by using commute time as productive time. He also points out that these cars will be a wonderful invention for blind or handicapped people. He thinks in major cities there will be more autonomous vehicles in the next 2-5 years.

Before the episode wraps up, Hussein offers the best piece of advice he’s ever received, which is that the real power is in motivating people and building strong, cross-functional relationships. Finally, Hussein engages in a round of rapid-fire questions.

Thank you for listening and please don’t forget to like and subscribe!

Links:

Learn more about Hussein Mehanna.

Find more episodes of Inspired Execution here.

Inspired Execution

Hussein Mehanna

Head of AI/ML, Cruise

The Rise of Machines: The Not-So-Scary Future of AI and Automation with Hussein Mehanna of Cruise

Episode Transcript