Roll Out Waymo's Simulation Tooling to a New City or Country

You are a product manager at Waymo. How would you roll out a simulation tool in a locale where it has not been used before? ```hint List what the locale changes A simulator built for one place carries that place's assumptions about roads, traffic rules and how people move. Work out which of those assumptions break in the new locale, and what the tool must be able to show there, before you plan the launch. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the simulation tool used internally by Waymo engineers to test the driving software, or is it a product offered to outside customers? - Is the new locale a new city in a country where Waymo already drives, or a new country with different traffic laws, a different driving side, or signs in another language? - What should the launch make possible: testing the driving software for that locale before a ride service starts there, or something else? - Is there a date for the service launch in that locale that the tool has to be ready for? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - What "launching" the tool in a locale means, who its users are, and what the launch must make possible. - An inventory of locale-specific gaps (map, traffic rules, signs, road-user behavior, weather) and how each one gets closed. - A phased rollout with readiness criteria based on how well the simulation matches real driving in the new place. - Success metrics and guardrails covering accuracy, coverage, cost and the safety of the service the tool supports. - Risks such as carrying over assumptions from existing cities, rules on collecting street data, and what regulators expect. ### Follow-up Questions - Early on-road testing in the new locale disagrees with simulation. How do you tell whether the simulator or the driving software is wrong? - How would your plan change if the locale drives on the left? - A local regulator asks to see simulation evidence as part of its approval. What would you give them, and what would you avoid claiming?