Yimeng Zhang, “It’s the absolute, unshakeable belief that motivates us to achieve our mission.”
Meet Dr. Yimeng Zhang, Pony.ai’s New US Site Lead
Pony.ai has a team of builders, thinkers, and innovators. Together, we are guided by the belief that autonomous driving should be available everywhere, and we work to build the safest and the most reliable self-driving technology across the world. The fidelity and accuracy of the Perception and Prediction modules are critical to realizing this innovative technology and our Safety First philosophy.
Perception is like the eyes of cars. It enables us to see and understand the world around us; it identifies and communicates what is happening around the vehicle. This week, we welcomed Dr. Yimeng Zhang, Pony.ai’s new US Site Lead & Head of Perception and Prediction, to sit down with us and share her commitment to pursuing our ambitious vision.
Crack of Dawn: Career Story
In 2014, Yimeng joined Project Chauffeur at Google after her original project got canceled. Back then, “nobody in the whole world, even myself,” was genuinely optimistic about self-driving technology, and most people remained skeptical about its achievability.
Chauffeur, in 2016, was renamed Waymo. And Yimeng was leading multiple major perception components. In 2018, she walked away from her job at Waymo and set out to challenge herself as the Head of Perception and Prediction at Pony.ai. In 2020, Yimeng led the accomplishment of Pony’s next-generation vehicle platform — AlphaX.
This year, as the company rolled out the mass production of its self-driving vehicles globally and was valued at over $5 billion, Yimeng was appointed as the US Site Lead of Pony.ai. As she steps into the leadership role, the new captain feels more confident than ever that “we will bring safe and reliable autonomous mobility everywhere.”
The below Q&A shares why Yimeng changed her viewpoint so drastically, how she envisions the future of autonomous vehicles, and what types of people thrive at Pony.ai.
Can you share a bit of your career journey, especially in the autonomous vehicle industry?
After finishing my Ph.D. study at Cornell in Electrical and Computer Engineering, I joined Google. The thrill did not last long because my project got canceled, so I had to start looking for opportunities in other teams. Before Waymo became one of the biggest players in the game, it was just a small research project called Chauffeur at Google. As far as I recall, the office space was small, the perception team had only around ten people, — that’s how self-driving was viewed in the early days. I do not think anyone in the world, even myself, felt genuinely optimistic about its future.
Why did you devote yourself to self-driving in the early days?
I wanted to apply what I learned from my Ph.D. study, computer vision, to products, and the kickoff of deep learning gave me that confidence. The possibility of an actual driverless future that could fundamentally change transportation, making it safer and more climate-friendly, that signals a meaningful and enchanting career path to me.
Walk me through how you transitioned from one of the early employees at Waymo to the Head of Perception and Prediction at Pony.ai? Why did you choose Pony?
I chose to part ways from Waymo in 2018. Back then, the company had matured quite a bit but I was looking for a position where I could improve, and more importantly, broaden my skill sets. Some wonderful opportunities presented themselves, and it didn’t take long for me to decide to join Pony.ai simply because the accountability, a sense of mission, and room for growth were exactly what I was looking for.
Ray of Sunshine: The Future of AV
It’s no secret that AV is one of the fastest-growing industries, and you witnessed its rapid expansion. How do you envision the future of self-driving? What do you think will happen when self-driving cars massively roll out?
There’s no doubt that the whole industry is getting better and more dynamic. Honestly, when I joined Pony.ai I remained conservative, but now I see AV as not just a possibility but a reality. The recent development of sensors, compute, by and large, the industry, all make me see the silver lining. Whether it’s the various ways of roll-out or the technological breakthroughs, I’m glad to know that we are in such a hopeful place.
Pony.ai’s goal has always been to make autonomous driving available at scale and beneficial to the world. With the rapid improvements of our full-stack technologies, I think we are at a critical stage of working towards scaling up, mass-production, and various commercialization methods. The next couple of years will be very exciting for the company.
Ball of Fire: Pony.ai
How have you grown professionally at Pony.ai?
My leadership qualities and skills got improved tremendously through continuous practice and purposefully working towards challenging goals. Pony.ai is a fast-growing company, and it provides incredible opportunities to everyone. I was anxious to lead such a big team. What I’ve learned throughout the years is that the more you push yourself out of the comfort zone, the stronger your leadership muscles grow, and it would increase your capacity to handle new possibilities incrementally.
What has been your proudest moment at Pony.ai?
In my first year leading the Perception team at Pony.ai, the quality of the perception system, in general, got improved more than 25 times. Seeing perception issues greatly reduced on the vehicle was definitely one of the most rewarding moments.
In 2020, AlphaX, without a doubt.
AlphaX is the next generation of Pony.ai’s autonomous hardware platform. It was the first time we retrofitted our autonomous platform in a large-scale way. We have upgraded most major hardware components for improved capability and reliability in our vehicles.
The project was so big that it involved three sites and numerous teams across different geographical regions, all working towards one goal. A slight discrepancy in communication may lead to severe problems and results. But we managed to work it out, and the project deliverables far exceeded my expectations. Those are tangible results we can see.
What types of people thrive at Pony.ai?
The common quality of our team is that we all have an absolute, unshakeable belief in autonomous driving. Our team doesn’t have our heads in the clouds. We are realistic, too. It’s the sense of duty, a credo, I would say, and a strong belief in our vision that bonds us together and motivates us to reach milestones continuously.
Then flexibility. At Pony.ai we have a culture that encourages the generation of new ideas. It involves opening to different ways of thinking and requires one to calmly deal with changing circumstances and proactively step out of their comfort zones. We provide a valuable opportunity that allows your skill sets and capabilities to grow exponentially.
Humble, adaptable, and mission-driven, Yimeng leads by example. We are thrilled that Yimeng stepped in as US Site Lead as we continue our journey to commercialization internationally.
We are growing, and now is an exciting time to join us! We are,
- Well funded. Earlier this year, we closed our Series C round with a total value of over $5 billion and was considered to be “one of the most valuable autonomous driving startups in the world.” (Time)
- Tech obsessed. The technical challenges we face every day are unprecedented and one-of-a-kind in the industry through the global-location approach to developing and testing our technology.
- Rapidly growing. We are on our way to mass production and commercialization. With more international operation sites opened to the public this year, our world-class team embraces a diverse network of talents dedicated to realizing autonomous mobility everywhere.
Check out the open positions on our website and find your fit at Pony.ai!
