W
2027 Summer Intern
Waymo
About the Role
Waymo is seeking PhD interns to join the AI Foundations team. This role focuses on developing machine learning solutions for autonomous driving, specifically using Visual-Language Models (VLMs) for AV planning.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and implement scenario preprocessors (e.g., visual rendering, scene representations, and multimodal prompting) to effectively present driving scenarios to state-of-the-art VLMs.
- Develop postprocessors that translate VLM outputs into feasible, safe trajectories for closed-loop vehicle control.
- Evaluate VLM driving harnesses in closed-loop autonomous driving simulation and iterate on representations based on driving metrics.
- Communicate research motivations and findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Conduct cutting-edge research and potentially communicate findings to the wider academic community via technical reports and/or publications.
Requirements & Tech Stack
- Familiarity with major ML Frameworks (JAX, Pytorch).
- Experience using coding agents for auto-research.
- 3+ years of experience with Deep Learning, Computer Vision, and Generative Models (such as VLMs/LLMs).
Qualifications
- Currently enrolled in a PhD program in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, physics, or a related technical field of study.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Publications at top-tier conferences such as CVPR/ICCV/ECCV/ICLR/ICML/NeurIPS/IROS/CoRL etc.
- Substantial involvement in and contributions to high impact industry AI projects.
- Experience with Vision-Language Models (VLMs), multimodal prompting/reasoning, or autonomous driving simulation and planning.