Recorded panels and conversations covering mobility, mentorship, and autonomous driving technology from the Self-Driven Women community.
A conversation with the leaders of the MIT-PITT-RW autonomous racing team on the current state of autonomous driving technology at the university level, and how to get involved as a student or as a professional. Features Nayana Suvarna and Cindy Heredia.
View discussionA panel of influential women working in autonomous driving technology and mobility discuss being a mentor, receiving mentorship, the role it has played in their careers, and tips on cultivating a mentorship.
View discussionWaymo COO Tekedra Mawakwana moderates a panel discussion with three inspiring female leaders in transportation and mobility. They share career stories, the challenges they have faced, the lessons learned to overcome them, and answer questions from attendees.
View discussionPart of the Self-Driven Women series, this discussion focuses on self-driven women engineering the future of autonomy and the roles they hold in the autonomy sector.
View discussionSelf-Driven Women is building a community of women developing the future of mobility. The recorded discussions gather engineers, team leaders, and industry mentors around the topics that shape careers in autonomous driving.
Panels feature speakers from Waymo, MIT, and other technology organizations, including Nayana Suvarna, Cindy Heredia, Eric Deng, Shipla Gulati, Congcong Li, and Allison Thackston.
Meet the speakersThe Waymo Events discussion archive brings together recorded panels from community gatherings on autonomous driving, mobility, and the business of building self-driving technology. Conversations feature people working across robotics, planning, controls, product, and operations, offering a wide view of how automated vehicles come to life. Each session is organized around shared themes, so viewers can move from technical talks on multi-agent planning and human–robot interaction to broader discussions about strategy, investment, and the operational realities of deploying driverless fleets in cities.
A recurring thread throughout the archive is mentorship and career development within the Self-Driven Women community. Speakers discuss the paths that led them into engineering, product management, systems and controls work, and investment, along with the practical experience of interning, contributing to lab research, and taking on leadership roles in student organizations and clubs. These recordings are useful for anyone weighing graduate study, early-career choices, or a pivot into the mobility field, since they capture candid advice rather than polished promotion.
The recordings also emphasize values that shape the industry, including equity, sustainable and ethical development, and the importance of building technology that serves real users and communities. Panelists reflect on aligning product portfolios with genuine user needs, on the culture inside fast-moving companies, and on how diverse perspectives improve the design of automated systems. Taken together, the sessions read as a field guide to the people, ideas, and working cultures driving the autonomous mobility conversation forward.