Webviz: How Cruise Built a Homegrown AV Dev Tool
Learn how a hackathon project became an essential data visualization tool for AV engineers at Cruise and beyond.
We want you, just as you are
When you’re building something that’s never been done before, it’s important to feel safe — safe to experiment, safe to fail, safe to share, and safe to express yourself. At Cruise, we’re committed to the safety, inclusivity, and development of our employees from the recruiting process through retirement — and every professional milestone along the way.
Nathan Rolander / Distinguished Systems Technical Lead Manager
Cruise offers a unique opportunity to not only build a robot that drives more safely than a human but also prove that it can be done. This is truly one of the great challenges of our time.
Different, together
We value who you are. It’s why we encourage Cruisers to connect and build a sense of belonging. From Cruise Community Groups (Asian & Pacific Islanders, Chai-paani, Cruisers of the African Diaspora, Empowering Women of Cruise, Families at Cruise, Latinx, LGBTQruise, Middle Easterners @ Cruise, and Veterans) to Cruise Clubs (Yackademia, Sustainability, Cyclists, and more), there’s opportunity for community at every turn.
Cruise behaviors
At Cruise, how we treat one another is just as important as what we achieve. These are the core values that ground our work and decisions.
Stay focused
Distractions slow us down. We’re proud to say “no,” so that when we do say “yes,” we can do our best possible work.
Own it
We get things done, even if others say it can’t be done. We do what we said we’d do. We value the right behaviors and actions as much as the results themselves.
Seek truth
We pursue facts, respectfully challenge assumptions, and clearly define objectives. When we disagree, we provide additional context and consider multiple perspectives.
Work together
We work as one team to deliver incredible results. We believe better solutions come from diverse teams and unique perspectives. We win or lose as a team, and we support each other during tough times.
Be humble
Every failure is an opportunity to learn, and every success is an opportunity to be thankful. Acknowledge the gaps, and commit to learning, growing, and improving.
We're here to support the whole you
Cruise offers benefits that ensure you and your family feel supported, safe, and healthy—whether working onsite or working from home.
- Flexible vacation
- Paid parental leave
- Fertility & family expansion benefits
- Paid holidays
- 401k matching program
- Monthly social events
- Community volunteering programs
- Healthy meals & snacks for onsite employees
- Quarterly offsites & working retreats
- Monthly wellness stipend
- Mental health support
- Professional development programs
- On-site gym in SF HQ
- Commuter benefits for onsite employees
- Cruise Community Groups
- Medical, dental & vision coverage
- AD+D and life insurance
Now is the perfect time to join Cruise
We’re integrated
By teaming up with General Motors, Honda, and Microsoft, we have an ecosystem of hardware, software, and manufacturing excellence that is unprecedented in our industry. We employ their world-class leadership in car design, manufacturing, AI, and cloud computing, so we can focus on what we do best: designing the software and hardware unique to self-driving.
We’re funded
GM, Honda, Microsoft, SoftBank, T. Rowe Price, and Walmart have invested billions in Cruise. Their backing demonstrates confidence in our progress, team, and vision and makes us one of the leading autonomous vehicle organizations in the industry. Our deep resources greatly accelerate our development.
We’re independent
As a majority-owned subsidiary of GM, Cruise operates autonomously, just like our vehicles. We have our own governance, board of directors, investors, and equity. Our independence allows us to not just work on the bleeding-edge of technology, but also define it.
We’re growing
You won’t just own your work here; you’ll have the potential to own equity in Cruise, too. The value of Cruise equity has increased at a compound annual growth rate of more than 100% since GM’s first investment in Cruise. We are competing in a market that is projected to expand to $557 billion by 2026, which gives our company valuation room to grow. We’re just beginning our journey—come join us.*
Hardware
Using cutting-edge technology, we design and develop custom hardware that power our software stack, such as the sensors (cameras, radars, acoustics, LiDARs), compute and network systems, telematics, and infotainment. Thanks to our deep resources and partners at GM, our Hardware engineers are uniquely positioned to transform the market by designing our sophisticated AV system reliably, at scale.
AI
Our vehicles collect petabyte-scale data daily from their sensors, providing rich information about the world. This data fuels our ML-first approach for critical systems of our AV stack. We enable our AVs to detect objects with high precision and accurately predict the actions of other roadway users. This allows our AVs to safely navigate San Francisco and continuously learn from every ride.
Product
As we master self-driving technology, our mobile and product engineers are designing the Cruise ride-hailing service. From developing an intuitive-to-use mobile application to seamlessly unlocking vehicle doors for customers, our work makes riding in a Cruise self-driving vehicle feel natural and effortless.
Robotics
The Robotics team fuses AI and ground-breaking robotics algorithms to enable our AVs to think critically and follow through on actions within milliseconds. With Cruise’s tooling, infrastructure, data, and talent, we are able to fully explore different solutions to enable a safe and comfortable ride through the unpredictable and ever-changing situations we encounter in San Francisco daily.
Embedded Systems
The Embedded Systems team writes and tests the first layer of software that runs on our autonomous vehicles. Our work ranges from interfacing with hardware to moving large amounts of data into the software stack. We connect our vehicles to reality, bridging the gap between the AV’s sensors and actuators and the highly sophisticated self-driving software — all while focusing on quality and safety.
Simulation
As our self-driving vehicles learn to drive San Francisco’s complex environment, we re-create situations in our simulations and run the equivalent of millions of miles of driving every day. Our highly realistic environments enable engineers to iterate faster and develop new features without ever hitting the road. We focus on automation, easy-to-use tools, and building massively scalable systems.
Infrastructure
To accelerate the launch of our AV technology, our Infrastructure team continuously improves reliability, scalability, and developer productivity. From our cloud platform and developer tooling to our highly scalable simulation infrastructure and production network backbone, we build and operate the cloud native infrastructure supporting our AVs and the engineering teams behind them.